Still the One
by Candid Ishida
Summary: Yamachi , Taito:: Matt and Tai are married and finally have children, but they'll need to overcome the hardships ahead to keep their family in one piece. Lemon, much Yaoi, includes Takari and Daiken. ::Please Read and Review!::
1. Part One

~~~When I first saw you, I saw love... From the first time I touched you, I felt love... And after all this time, you're still the one I love... 

~~~~~ 

  
  


"Hello, this is Tai."

"Tai! I have the most exciting news!"

"Hey, Kari, What's up?"

"I'm going to have a baby!"

"What!? No way, does TK know yet?"

"Not yet, I just got back from the doctor's office, you're the first person I've told."

"Kari, this is great! When is the baby due?"

"In nine months, silly."

"I know that, wait, so that would make it due in February."

"Yup, oh, I can't wait for TK to get home!"

"He's going to flip! Oh, you know who else is going to flip out?"

"Who?"

"Matt, he loves babies."

"Oh, that reminds me, has the adoption agency gotten back to you yet, Tai?"

"No... but we haven't given up hope yet. We're still young, right?"

"I'd say 25 is fairly young."

"Right, we're just starting out, someday we'll have a family of our own."

  
  


~~~~~

  
  


Yamato Ishida, the delicate blond beauty, stepped out onto the sidewalk and locked the

door of Shugotenshi Notes behind him. He slipped the key back into his coat pocket and put on

his woolen gloves.

Christmas had just passed, and he was surprised by how many parents had gotten their

teenagers electric guitars for Christmas. Shugotenshi Notes was Matt's music shop, which sold

everything from CDs to grand pianos. Music was one of his passions, along with cooking

and his lover, Taichi. Matt had opened the music shop to earn money while his band was waiting

to make it big. They still called themselves the Teen-Age Wolves, despite the fact that Matt and

the other three members were now in their twenties.

Matt shoved his hands into his coat pockets and began the walk back to his and Tai's

apartment.

"Hey, Yami," Tai said when Matt came through the front door. The brunette was sitting

on the floor next to the coffee table with papers scattered around him.

Matt took his shoes and coat off and sat himself down next to Tai. Matt gave him a quick

kiss on the cheek.

"What's all this?" he inquired, wrapping his arms around Tai's slender waist.

"Just some junk coach gave us to look at. We had one of those mid-winter meetings

today."

After playing all through school, Tai had finally become a professional soccer player, and

was the best player on his team. He often talked with Matt about his dream of someday winning

the World Cup.

"Sounds interesting," Matt said. He began kissing his way down Tai's neck. He wasn't at

all interested in team sports, Matt was a martial artist, but he gladly went to all of Tai's games. 

He loved Tai more than most people even realize it's possible to love someone. One who didn't

know the couple well might even think it was an obsession.

"Mm, not really," Tai turned around to face his blonde partner. "So, how was your day

anyway?"

"Fine, pretty boring though," Matt answered, pressing his forehead against Tai's and

staring into his chocolate colored eyes, "without you."

"Yami, you're such a sweet-talker. You don't have to try and win me over, you know. 

We're already married." Tai lied down on his back on the rug, pulling Matt on top of him.

"I know, but why shouldn't I try to make you feel special?" Matt moved completely on

top of Tai and began kissing his neck again.

"I don't...know...nng..." Tai closed his eyes. Matt had a certain talent when it came to

using his mouth.

Later that evening, they sat at the dining room table, having just finished the dinner Matt

had prepared.

"Hey, how's Kari?" Matt asked.

"She's doing alright. There's only a month left now, she's really excited."

"Have they found out if it's a boy or girl yet?"

"They want to be surprised, Oh yeah, Kari wants the two of us to be in the delivery room. 

You're allowed to have three people in there, so it'll be me, you, and TK."

"I can hardly believe they beat us to it," Matt sighed.

"Huh?"

"Our younger siblings having kids before us I meant."

"Oh.... Hey, Matt, don't start getting all depressed again."

"I'm not depressed," he said, flashing Tai one of those 'Matt' looks, and began gathering

up the plates and silverware that were to be put in the dishwasher. " I just wish we had a family."

"We are a family," Tai got up and helped Matt clear off the table. "You, me, Kikoutei and

Shimofuri."

Kikoutei and Shimofuri were Tai's kittens (now adult cats) that Matt had gotten for him

when they were teenagers. Matt hated cats with a passion, but he put up with them for Tai's

sake. Kikoutei was an orange and white female, and Shimofuri was a grey male who was rather

fat. Kikoutei was desperately in love with her tan skinned owner, and Tai adored both of them. 

Matt sometimes was jealous of the way Tai babied and cuddled them, when he was the one who

wanted to be cuddled.

  
  


That night, after Matt had finished his evening reading and turned off the light, he lay

with Tai in bed. He traced his fingernails up and down Tai's stomach under his shirt, while Tai

twirled strands of Matt's semi-long hair around his fingers.

"What time is it, Yami?" Tai said, yawning.

Matt shifted his body over for a moment and looked at the digital clock on the nightstand.

"Quarter after twelve," he replied.

"Do you have to go to work tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow's Sunday, Tai, of course I don't have to go to work." Matt settled himself

back down next to Tai.

"What about practice?"

"No practice on Sunday, angel, you know that." He softly kissed Tai's cheek.

"Mm... move oooovvveerr..." Tai said mischievously.

"What do you want, Tai?" Matt was pushed onto his back and Tai forced his head onto

the pillow when he tried to sit up.

"What are you doing?" Matt giggled slightly as Tai slid down underneath the covers and

on top of him. He didn't need to look under the blankets to know what was going on, he could

feel Tai pulling down the waistband of his grey sweat pants. Matt started to heat up as his

husband spread his legs apart.

Tai's bushy hair tickled Matt's stomach and hips. Matt's blue eyes opened wide when he felt the brunette's lips touching his member. He gasped as Tai's mouth surrounded him and he ran his hot tongue over the tip.

"Nng..." Matt moaned quietly and squeezed his eyes shut. The indescribable pleasure

surmounted as Tai's vacuum of a mouth went to work between Matt's legs.

A few minutes went by, first five, then ten and the volume of Matt's cries had increased considerably. Then, just as Matt was about to climax, the phone rang.

"Let the machine get it..." he moaned.

Tai stopped and peeked his head out from under the blankets.

"Matt, why would someone be calling in the middle of the night, what if it's an emergency?"

"Please...just keep going." Matt begged.

"Yami..." Tai crawled overtop of Matt and reached for the phone.

"Taichi...please..." he whined.

"Hello, this is Tai."

"Tai!" TK's voice shouted over the phone, "You have to get to the hospital right away!"

"Hey, slow down! TK, what's wrong, what happened?"

Matt, who had been worrying about his aching erection, turned and looked up at Tai upon hearing his brother's name mentioned.

"You and Matt have to get here right now! Kari's gone into labor!"

"WHAT!?" Tai shouted into the phone, almost dropping it.

"What, what's the matter?" Matt asked, trying to hear TK.

"We have to go! Kari's in labor!"

"Now!?"

"Yes, now!!"

Tai scrambled off the bed and ran over to the closet, grabbing clothes and tossing them around the room, trying to find something to put on. Matt picked up the phone which Tai had left dangling off the edge of the bed.

"TK? Are you still there?" Matt was pulling his pants up and dodging flying articles of clothing at the same time.

"Yeah! What the heck just happened?"

"Tai dropped the phone. We'll be there in a couple of minutes, ok?" Matt was trying to stay calm, which was difficult with Tai flinging things around like a madman.

"Tell Kari to wait until we get there!!" Tai yelled, pulling a shirt on over his hair.

"Tai says, tell Kari to wait for us."

"How am I supposed to tell her that!? What am I going to say, hold the baby in!?"

Matt rolled his eyes and picked up some clothes for himself off the bed, which Tai had thrown at him.

"Just tell her we're on our way."

"Ok, Matt, alright, I've got to go back to the delivery room."

"Right TK, see ya." Matt heard the receiver at the other end of the line hang up and he did the same. He pulled off the t-shirt he wore to bed and started buttoning up a black silk one.

"TAI! Settle down, you're trying to put your arm through the shirt collar!" he scolded.

"I can't settle down! My little sister is having a baby RIGHT NOW!"

Matt growled at him and continued getting dressed, then assisted Tai, who was running all over the room trying to find a pair of pants.

  
  


When they finally arrived at the hospital it was almost one in the morning. Matt had driven there, due to the fact that Tai was almost having a nervous breakdown.

The two of them hurried up the stairs to the delivery room, after being instructed where to go by the receptionist. They would have taken the elevator, but Tai was in such a hurry to get to Kari, he said they didn't have time to look for it.

"Yami, what if everything's all over, what if I missed it and I wasn't there for her!?" Tai said, tugging on Matt's shirt the whole way up the stairs.

"Tai, people don't usually have babies that quickly, when TK called, she had just gone into labor."

"But that was hours ago!"

"It was only thirty minutes ago! Settle down." Matt grabbed Tai's hand and gave him a reassuring squeeze.

They reached the delivery room but were almost knocked over by a blue haired doctor racing past.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!" Matt snapped at him.

The tall doctor turned around suddenly, his glasses almost flying off his face.

"Matt, Tai! Kari didn't think you'd ever get here!"

"Joe!?" Matt and Tai both said at once.

"You're Kari's doctor? I thought you were still in medical school," Matt said.

"I'm an interning obstetrician, remember? Kari told her regular doctor she'd rather have someone she was close to deliver the baby, so they asked me."

"Joe, I'm so glad it's you doing it and not some stranger," Tai said happily.

Matt and Tai followed Joe into the delivery room and saw Kari lying in the bed with TK at her side.

"Tai!"

"Kari," Tai hurried over next to his sister and kissed her forehead. He sat himself down in the chair on the bedside opposite TK and clutched her hand. She appeared to be in quite a bit of pain.

"I'm so glad you're here..." she said softly.

"Kari, you sound awful, didn't they give you anything for the pain?" He said, stroking the back of her hand.

"I want to have a natural birth, no drugs," she replied in a hoarse voice. "For once I'm going to be strong like you, Tai."

Tai smiled and kissed her again. Kari was such a small, delicate young woman, but she was very strong willed. It ran in the family.

Matt raised his eyebrow, watching Joe and the nurses getting ready for the birth.

"Joe, have you ever actually delivered a baby before?"

"Well..." Joe looked at Kari nervously, "I've watched other doctors deliver babies...and I've taken all the classes..."

"You mean this is your first one!?" Matt said.

Tai stood up quickly and marched over to Joe.

"If you screw up anything with my little sister's baby, I swear I'll make you eat those glasses!" Matt stifled a giggle, because Tai was about 4 inches shorter than Joe, and it was funny to Tai threatening someone so much taller than him. Of course, Matt had no doubt Tai could beat up Joe if he really needed to, he was amazingly strong for someone so small.

"I promise I won't mess up!" Joe said, apparently taking Tai's threat very seriously.

"Tai," Kari called to him. "Joe's a good doctor, you know that."

"Taichi..." Matt stepped over and placed his hand on his husband's shoulder. "Everything's going to be fine."

Tai was about to answer, but was interrupted by a sudden scream from Kari. Matt and Tai raced over and leaned over on either side of her, and TK stood behind the bed, rubbing her shoulders.

"Hang on, Kari..." TK said, and started biting his bottom lip in anxiety.

Matt and Tai held onto both of Kari's hands tightly while Joe checked her.

"She's fully dilated, Nurse!" he called, and the nurses began buzzing around, getting everything ready.

"Just do what Joe says, Kari, and stay strong!" Tai told her.

"I will....AAAAAAAAA!!!!"

Matt glanced over at Tai's face when Kari screamed, he looked like he was the one having a baby. 

Kari's grip on their hands tightened with each contraction, Matt felt like his fingers were about to break, but Tai didn't seem to notice.

"Push!" Joe instructed her.

"Come on, Kari, push!" Tai urged.

"Push, Kari, you can do it!" TK said from behind her.

"I AM PUSHING!" she screamed at the three of them. Matt just smiled, he had never heard Kari yell so loud in his life.

Matt, TK and Tai looked on in anticipation as Kari pushed along with every contraction, and the baby slowly came closer to being born. TK was now supporting her back so she could put more force into each push, and Matt and Tai held onto her hands tightly. After what seemed like an enternity,

"Alright Kari, just one more..." Joe said.

Kari screamed at the top of her lungs, TK's eyes opened as wide as they could go, and Tai looked like he was about to explode. Matt and Tai waited, until finally, Kari sighed with relief and they heard the baby cry.

"Congratulations!" Joe said, "It's a boy!"

Matt and Tai grinned at each other across the bed, and TK passed out.

"TK!" Kari said, trying to turn around and see him behind her.

"Just hold still, Kari" Tai said, making her stay put.

Matt hurried behind the hospital bed and hoisted his brother into a chair.

"Hey, bro, wake up!" Matt shook TK gently, trying to bring him back into consciousness. "TK! You're the proud owner of a brand new baby boy!"

  
  


The next morning, when TK was finally conscious again and Kari was feeling better, she held her newborn son in her arms, and Matt and Tai leaned against the bed. TK had gone downstairs to get Kari some breakfast and call their parents.

"He's so tiny..." Tai said. The baby wrapped his little hand around Tai's finger.

"He's a month early, Tai, so he's extra small," Matt said, smiling at his nephew. He had fluffy blonde hair all over his head that was as fine and delicate as silk.

"Have you decided on a name yet?" Matt asked, running his hand gently over the baby's soft hair.

"Yes, Yamachi. Yama for Yamato and chi for Taichi." Tai looked up, and Kari smiled sweetly at her older brother.

"That's perfect, Kari," he said.

"Do you like it, Matt?" She turned to him.

"I'm honored you would name your baby after us."

"Do you want to hold him now?"

Over the past few hours, Matt was the only one who had not held Yamachi yet. He was almost afraid to, the infant was so small.

"Sure, but..."

"What's wrong?" Kari asked, trying to hand the baby to Matt.

"I've never held a newborn baby before, I don't know what to do..."

"Just cradle his head and rock him gently," Kari said. Matt sat up and took the baby into his arms. Yamachi wrapped his hand around Matt's ring finger, hooking one finger around his wedding ring.

"He likes your ring, Yami," Tai mused.

"Matt's your other uncle, Yamachi," Kari said, leaning over her son.

The newborn held tightly onto Matt's ring, and hiccuped. Matt grinned down at the little baby in his arms, and was positively glowing.


	2. Part Two

"Holy Light, sotto yami wo terasu yo, asu no michi oshieru you ni.... Holy light douzo yuuki wo kudasai mirai e no..." Matt sang softly to the baby he was rocking back and forth in the cradle.

Five months had passed, and it was now summer. Yamachi looked up at his uncle and reached for him.

"No, no, you can't pull my hair anymore right now, it's nap time." He said to the tiny child. He tucked Yamachi's thin summer blanket around him and turned on the mobile that was hanging over his head.

"Yami, we just got a postcard from TK and Kari!" Tai said, strolling into the living room.

"Let me guess, Kari wrote it and TK signed it with her?" Matt said.

"Heh, yup." Tai sat down in Matt's lap and looked down into the cradle. Yamachi was still awake, gazing up at them.

"You want to hear what the letter from your mommy and daddy says?" Tai asked him. Yamachi only responded with a cooing baby sound and let his tongue stick out.

"I'll take that as a yes," Tai said. Matt wrapped his arms around the slender brunette's waist and peeked over his shoulder as he began reading.

"Dear Matt, Tai, and Yamachi, Our trip is going well, we've never been pampered so much in our lives. The ocean is beautiful and the weather has been just great, the sun's been out every day. TK was worried he'd get seasick, but he's just fine. I want to thank you two again for taking care of Yamachi while we're away, we really needed a few days alone. I hope he's not giving you too much trouble and that he's sleeping through the night. Don't forget to make sure his bottle is heated up to the right temperature. We'll see you next week, and tell Yamachi his mommy and daddy love him. Love, Kari and TK." 

When Tai finished reading, he and Matt looked down into the cradle and saw that Yamachi was asleep, sucking on his thumb.

"I guess he already knew," Matt said, smiling, and leaned his head on Tai's shoulder. The post card must have been printed on the cruise ship Kari and TK were on, because there was a picture of them on the front. TK was behind Kari with his arms around her, grinning, and Kari was smiling cheerfully and flashing a peace sign. The ocean was in the background.

After five months of taking care of the baby non-stop, with no rest, their parents suggested that Kari and TK take a short vacation and relax. Matt and Tai volunteered to take care of Yamachi while they were gone, and were loving every minute of it.

Matt looked at the picture of his little brother and sister-in-law and sighed.

"Tai...I want a baby."

Tai turned around in Matt's lap so he was facing him. Matt looked up at him with his slanted blue eyes and appeared to be on the verge of tears. Tai placed his hand on Matt's cheek and Matt nuzzled against it.

"Yami...I know you do. Someday we'll have children of our own, I promise."

Matt sniffled slightly and leaned his head against Tai's chest. He clutched at his shirt and Tai wrapped his arms around his husband, rocking him slowly.

"Do you really want a family, Tai?"

"Yes...so much..." Tai held Matt closer to him. "I wish I could have a baby for you, but I can't..."

"Don't say things like that, I love you just the way you are." Matt sat up and kissed Tai's sun-sweet lips. Tai pressed his mouth to Matt's and exchanged kisses with him, long and deep.

Eventually, Tai pulled back and pressed his forehead to Matt's. He stared with his rich, cocoa brown eyes and smiled.

"I will always love you."

Matt purred.

  
  
  
  


"What do you think, would Tai like the orange roses or the yellow roses better?" Matt looked down into the baby carriage. Yamachi was making baby noises and reaching for a big purple flower in front of him, but couldn't quite get it.

"Right, orange, good choice." Matt went to reach for the flowers but had to bend down to pick up Yamachi's pacifier, which he had thrown on the ground. When he leaned over, the baby reached out and grabbed onto Matt's hair and yanked on a fistful.

"Owww!! Please, pleeeaaase let go of my hair, Yamachi," he urged, trying to pull the baby's hand away from his blond hair.

The girl at the counter of the flower boutique giggled when Matt stepped up to pay for the flowers.

"Are you having a little trouble with your son?" she smiled.

"Oh, he's my nephew actually, his parents are on a cruise for the week."

The girl smiled again and put Matt's money into the cash register. "That's very nice of you to take care of him." She sniffed the roses and handed the bouquet to Matt.

"These are lovely, are they for your wife?"

"My husband," Matt replied. The girl suddenly stopped smiling and just grinned awkwardly, it was a very forced grin.

"Have a nice day," she said, immediately ending the conversation.

Matt scowled at her for a moment and then walked away, laying the flowers on the top of the baby carriage. 

Outside, he strapped Yamachi into his baby seat and sat down. He put the key into the ignition and sighed as the car started up. Reaching into his pocket, he took out his wallet and looked at the picture of Tai in his soccer uniform. He stared at it, his beloved husband. Matt was extremely sensitive when it came to people being intolerant of his lifestyle, he always worried someone would hurt Tai's feelings. People sometimes wondered if Matt was too over protective, Tai was such a courageous individual, but he never seemed to mind. That's just the way Matt was, protective of the people he cared most about. The two of them were deeply in love, and nothing could ever change that.

"Stupid girl..." Matt glared at the flower shop one last time and drove off.

  
  


"Welcome home," Matt said, looking up momentarily from his book. He was on the sofa, rocking Yamachi's cradle with his foot. 

"Hey, Yami." Tai dropped his equipment bag on the floor and took off his shoes. He must have taken a shower in the locker rooms, because his hair was still wet.

"Who are the roses for?" Tai said, looking at the vase on the dining room table, filled with orange roses.

"Who do you think?" Matt said, still reading.

Tai padded into the living room. He kneeled down on the couch, shut Matt's book, and kissed his forehead. Matt decided not to try to get it back, Tai obviously didn't want him paying attention to anything else right now.

"What's the occasion?" Tai sat down next to Matt and started nuzzling against his neck.

"They're for winning your game yesterday." he nuzzled Tai back and licked the tip of his earlobe. Chills ran up Tai's back, and he could feel a blush creeping into his cheeks.

"Don't do that, you know it drives me wild."

"What, this?" Matt wrapped his arm around Tai's shoulder and nibbled lightly on his ear.

"Nng...Yami, not with the baby here."

"What's he going to do?" Matt grinned slyly, "tell our parents on us?" Even though they were adults, Matt and Tai never lost the urge to act playful.

"Heh, we wouldn't want him to do that," Tai flashed his trademark grin that Matt absolutely adored.

Matt smirked and started talking in a shy little voice.

"Taichi...have you ever...touched someone's naughty bits before?"

Tai giggled and began pretending too. "No...have you?"

Matt shook his head, "Uh uh..."

"Matt, I'm scared, what if someone catches us?" 

Matt covered his mouth to keep from laughing, Tai sounded so convincing. He peeked into Yamachi's cradle and saw he was sleeping peacefully.

Matt grabbed Tai's hand and pulled him off the couch. "Shh, don't worry, nobody will catch us if we hide somewhere."

He dragged Tai into the closet and they closed the door behind them. Matt pulled the chain on the ceiling light and it flashed on. They sat down on the floor of the closet.

"I'm nervous...I've never done anything like this before, Matt."

"Come on, don't be scared. I'll let you touch first, if you want."

Tai shook his head, smiling, "No, you go first."

He unzipped his pants and slowly pulled his underwear down a few inches. Matt tried to act surprised. 

"You don't look very nervous."

He reached his hand down and ran his fingers over Tai gently.

"Ooh, Matt...you make me feel so dirty."

Matt started laughing hysterically and snorted.

"Tai, you're such a dork."

Tai stuck his tongue out and crawled on top of Matt.

"Hey, while my pants are down, you wanna-" Tai raised his eyebrows up and down quickly.

"Well when you put it that way..."

They ended up waking the baby. (wink, wink)

  
  


~~~~~~~~~~

  
  


On Sunday, Kari and TK had returned home, early in the morning. Matt had cooked a big supper for everyone, and Kari and Tai's parents had come over for the evening as well.

At the dining room table, Kikoutei and Shimofuri circled around Tai's feet, meowing for some food, although Shimofuri was closer to yowling.

"Go on, get out of here!" Matt yelled, trying to shoo the cats away from the table. Kikoutei arched her back and hissed at him.

"Matt, leave them alone, they just want some food." Tai cut a little piece off his chicken and tossed it to the two felines, who gobbled it right up.

"Well just try to make them stay quiet."

"I don't think I can do that, Yami."

The meal continued, and the subject of discussion turned to Yamachi.

"Did he sleep alright for you while we were gone?" Kari asked.

"Well, yeah, except for last night," Matt said.

"Yeah," Tai grinned, "we sort of woke him up." Matt glanced over at him and smirked.

"Couldn't keep quiet, huh?" TK said. "Boy you two, your kids are never going to get any sleep."

The two sets of siblings started laughing, but Mrs. Yagami scolded them.

"Kids! Don't talk about that sort of thing!"

"Mom," Tai said, looking over at her. "We're married adults, we have sex, you know."

"A lot..." Matt added quietly. Tai elbowed him in the side but smiled anyway.

"I mean, you must know what it is, you have two kids," Tai continued.

"Really, Mom," TK said (Matt and TK had grown accustomed to calling Mrs. And Mr. Yagami Mom and Dad.) "Where do you think Yamachi came from?"

They all glanced over at the baby, who was sitting in his high chair, drooling, and had his hands buried somewhere under his lemon chicken. Kikoutei and Shimofuri were looking up hopefully, waiting for him to drop something.

"I just don't think that's table talk," Mrs. Yagami said.

"Oh, they're fine, honey," Kari and Tai's father said. "Like they said, they are married."

"I wonder what she would think if she knew we both lost our virginity when we were 14," Matt whispered to Tai. Tai just smiled slyly at Matt and squeezed his thigh under the table.

"So, what's your and Kari's favorite position?" Matt asked casually. Mrs. Yagami just kept quiet and glanced at TK, although her eyes were opened a little wider than usual.

"Well, we were on all fours a lot while Kari was pregnant."

"TK..." Kari looked up from her food and blushed slightly.

"What about you?" TK asked, taking a bite of his dinner.

"The Amazing Butterfly," Tai and Matt said at the same time.

"What's that?" TK said.

"Well, the person at the receiving end usually lies on something sort of high up, like the table," Matt started to say, but was interrupted by,

"This table!?" TK said in surprise.

"Well... we put a table cloth on it for tonight," Tai said. Tai and Kari's mother looked down at the table top like she was about to burst a blood vessel.

"You mean you, and my son, on this table!?" Tai's mother started stuttering at Matt.

"Good job, son!" Mr. Yagami said, grinning. Matt raised one blond eyebrow. Tai and Kari had such weird parents, and this was even weirder because Mrs. Yagami was usually so laid back.

Tai just giggled, "Yes mom, on this table."

"What are you going to do when you have children!?" she said.

"That's what summer camp is for," Matt said, smirking devilishly.

"My goodness..." 

  
  
  
  


That night, Tai and Matt sat together in their large bathtub. It was round and had jets all around the outside. The tub was currently filled with water that had strawberry scented bubbles floating on the top.

Tai leaned with his head on Matt's shoulder, about to fall asleep. The soothing scent of the bubbles was making him drowsy.

"Taichi...are you still awake?"

"Nng..."

Matt sighed and moved his fingers around, causing ripples in the water's surface. He thought of what a big apartment they had, two unused rooms that could be bedrooms. The past week taking care of Yamachi had been exhausting, but had left him feeling so fulfilled. Taking care of someone was what Matt loved most, but Tai didn't need his constant guarding. However, there was someone who would need to be looked after, day and night. Someone Matt wanted to meet, he wanted...more.

"Tai,"

"Mm, yes, Yami?" Tai opened one eye sleepily and sat up, yawning slightly.

"I want a child, I want a baby of our own to take care of."

"I know that, Matt, we've talked about this before. Someday we'll have kids, we just have to be patient."

"No, I don't want to wait anymore."

"But..."

"Tai..." Matt put his hands on his husband's shoulders and looked straight into his eyes. "I know I should be patient, but if we're patient too long, it's going to be too late. We'll be old and dying and we still won't have any children."

"Yami...What am I supposed to do? You know how hard it is for two men to adopt a child..."

Matt pursed his lips momentarily. "There's another way..."

  
  


Kari looked down at the floor with her eyebrows upturned. She sighed uneasily and looked back up at her brother and his husband.

"Tai, I don't know what to say..."

"You don't have to decide now, just...could you at least consider it?" he said.

"I'll have to talk it over with TK..."

"Of course! What time does he get home anyway?"

"Usually around six o' clock..."

Matt and Tai had come over to Kari and TK's apartment that afternoon to ask her a very important question. They were sitting in the living room, eating some cookies Kari had prepared earlier that day. Yamachi was sleeping in his crib on the other side of the room, with baby drool dribbling down the side of his face. Kari had finally lost all the weight she put on during her pregnancy, but now faced the possibility of gaining it back again.

"This is just so... I don't know, I mean... I just had a baby, I'm not sure if I want to waste a whole year of my life having another one that won't even be mine..."

"Waste?" Tai said softly. Kari glanced up at him again. He appeared extremely hurt.

"No, Tai, I didn't mean it like that. I'm sorry! Of course it wouldn't be a waste, but do you understand what I mean? Carrying a baby is a big commitment, and I can't exactly change my mind halfway through."

"Forget it," Matt said suddenly. "This was a stupid idea, I should never have brought it up."

"No! Yami, it is not..." Tai said, placing his hand on Matt's shoulder.

"Matt, I'm not saying no, but I need to think it through. And I need to talk to TK before I make any decisions."

"Kari," Matt said. "I know this is a really big favor to ask, but this might be the only way. All of the adoption agencies we've gone to don't seem to want to help us....

Kari sighed once again. "I never thought my brother would be asking me to have a baby for him."

"I know it's strange, Kari...but we don't really have a lot of choices available to us. And Matt and I really want to have children." He looked blankly at the floor as he spoke. This was so frustrating. The last thing Tai wanted was to disappoint the one who had done so much for him, now that he was finally the one in need.

Matt reached over and place his slender hand onto Tai's. Tai's stare shifted upwards and Matt's sapphire eyes met his own cocoa ones. They didn't need to speak, they could almost read each other's minds, they had been together for so long. Matt knew Tai was doing his best, and Tai could tell how strong Matt's desire was to have a child.

"I have one question though," Kari said, causing the two young men to break their stare and look over at her.

"What is it, Kari?" Tai asked his sister.

"If we do go through with this, which one of you is going to be the father?"

They both were slightly surprised by this question. 

"Um, we haven't really talked that over yet," Tai answered. He squeezed Matt's hand, and added. "Although...I know he'd never say anything, but I kind of think Matt wants to be the father. Of our first baby anyway."

"You're planning to have more!?" Kari gasped.

Matt blushed slightly. "I've always wanted a daughter and a son..."

Tai started to worry that Matt might drift into some kind of depression if he never had any children. A look of determination formed on tai's tan face and he kneeled down in front of Kari.

"Kari, I'm kind of afraid I'm going to sound selfish by saying this, but... I know I've always been there for you when you needed me, and now I need you. I won't be upset with you if you refuse, but if you would help us have a baby, I'd just be so happy."

She looked down into her brother's big brown eyes and held both of his hands. She thought back to their early childhood. Tai had always taken care of her, even when they were practically babies still living in Highton View Terrace. He always made sure she got breakfast and lunch when their mother wasn't home. As soon as he started school and learned to read, he would read her bedtime stories before they went to sleep. He even used the time when he could have been with his older friends to stay home and play with her, since she was only a toddler and had no real friends of her own yet. Then when they went to the Digital World and she fell ill, he had risked his own life to make sure she got well again.

After all her brother had done for her, she made up her mind that she owed him something in return. He had never asked anything of her before, he had always just continued to give and never expected her to thank him for it, he felt it was his duty.

Now, Kari decided, it was time to thank him for everything by giving him what he wanted most. A child, and his husband's happiness.

"Tai...as soon as TK gets home I'm telling him."

"Wait, telling him what we asked?" Tai said, a tiny bit confused.

"No, I'm telling him that I'm going to have another baby. But this time, for you."


	3. Part Three

Years passed. Summer turned to winter four times in Odaiba, and change happened as it always does. Matt and Tai were approaching their thirtieth birthdays this year, but still looked almost as young as they did when they were teenagers. They still refused to cut their hair short, and since they were both lucky enough not to have office jobs, they didn't have to. 

Right now, Matt was running his hands through Tai's fluffy hair in their bathtub. It was late at night, nearing midnight, but since the weekend began on the next day, they didn't feel the need to get to bed any time soon.

Tai poked Matt in the stomach and tickled him lightly. Matt stifled a giggle and pushed Tai away, grinning. 

"Don't make me laugh, we have to be quiet!" he whispered.

"Whyyy," Tai whined, and sat in his blonde husband's lap. Tai's tongue worked its way along Matt's collar bone and up his neck.

"Nng... Tai...You're going to get me all worked up."

"So?"

Matt felt a nip at his ear. 

"Agh!" He yelled, louder than he was planning to. Tai was giggling like an idiot and Matt pushed him off into the water.

"Get off, jerk," Matt said, grinning. Tai was still laughing and had his tongue sticking out at Matt.

"SSSSHHH!!!" Matt could barely stay quiet himself. Tai looked like such a beautiful doofus with his knees sticking up out of the water and that priceless grin plastered across his face.

"Don't you care that you're going to wake up our little sleeping-"

He was about to add 'angels' to the end of his sentence, but was interrupted by the sound of tiny feet shuffling into the bathroom.

"Daddy..." the little girl's sniffles could be heard from under her messy blond hair, which had fallen out of its pigtails and was hanging in her face.

"Aww...what's the matter, baby, did we wake you up?" He said, leaning over the edge of the tub. Tai sat up a bit and moved over beside him.

"I had a bad dream..." she sobbed, walking over to the side of the bathtub.

"Come here, sweety," Matt said. He reached over and hugged her. Tai patted her on the head and she moved over to hug him as well.

"Go on back to bed and we'll come tuck you in as soon as we get dried off," Tai told her.

She shook her head furiously, causing her hair to hit Tai in the face.

"I wanna stay with you..."

"You already took your bath tonight, sweety," Matt said to his daughter.

"Please? I wanna stay here..." She stuck her bottom lip out and blinked the last of her tears from her blue eyes.

"She can come in with us, right, Yami?" Tai said, cuddling her.

"Alright," Matt tapped her on the nose with the tip of his finger. "But no splashing or you have to eat Daddy Tai's cooking for a week."

"Yucky!!" she squealed.

"Hey, don't turn my own kid against me!" Tai giggled.

The little girl was Matt and Tai's first child, who they had named Toutoi, meaning precious, but nicknamed Tuesday, after the day of the week she was born on. 

Their baby son, Shinji (from Shinjiteru, 'I believe') had just turned two years old, and was sleeping in his bedroom at the moment.

The little girl undressed and climbed in the tub with her fathers. In Japan it is common for young children to bathe with their parents, and the Ishida family always enjoyed the time spent together.

Matt took the ribbons out of Tuesday's hair and brushed it out for her, while she talked to Tai about the bad dream she just had.

"Are you all better now?" He asked her when she was finished.

"Yeah, I'm not scared anymore, Daddy Tai." She tried to turn around to see what Matt was doing to her hair, causing it to catch in the comb.

"Ouch!"

"Oops, sorry." Matt said, kissing her head lightly.

"Don't pull my hair, I'll pull your hair!" She said and tugged at Matt's golden hair.

"Ding ding." She pulled twice and sat back down.

"Come in," Matt said, poking her in the stomach. She smiled cheekily and blew a raspberry at him.

"Hey, that's not polite," Tai said. Playfully scolding his daughter. She responded by blowing one at him as well.

"Uh oh, Tai. It looks like we have a bad girl on our hands here," Matt said, grinning slyly. Tai caught on immediately, this was a game they had played so many times.

"Do you think she needs to be punished?" 

"Definitely."

"Well, you asked for it," Tai said, cornering Tuesday against the edge of the tub.

"TICKLE BLASTER!" Tai shouted.

"Noooooo!!!!" she shrieked, as the onslaught of tickles came at her. She tried squirming away but Matt moved up behind her and help her arms. Tuesday laughed and suddenly screamed at the top of her lungs.

Matt and Tai grinned at each other over their daughter's head until they heard wailing coming from the other room.

"Uh oh, we woke the baby..." Tai said.

"Again," Matt added. They picked Tuesday up out of the bathtub and put her pink Tokomon print bathrobe on her. They wrapped towels around themselves and ran to the other room to tend to their crying son, Tuesday scampering after them.

On Sunday morning, Tai sat at the breakfast table across from Tuesday and Shinji was wriggling in his high chair, trying to get free.

"Nnnngg!!" He whined loudly, pushing on the tray in front of him, attempting to knock it off.

"Shinji, stop," Matt said, placing the breakfast plates on the table and walking back into the kitchen to get his coffee and Tai's tea.

"I wan get down!" he screamed. Apparently Shinji had decided this morning that he was too big for a high chair.

"We'd let you sit in a big people's chair if you would eat your breakfast like a good boy," Tai responded. He cut his son's pancakes for him and held a piece up on the end of the fork to get him started, but he turned his head away.

"Eat, it's yummy!" Tai urged.

He shook his head, causing his oversized goggles to slip down his forehead into his face. Since Davis still had Tai's original goggles, they had gotten Shinji a pair that was very similar. 

"Ugh..." Tai fixed Shinji's goggles and started eating his own breakfast.

"Daddy!" Shinji yelled, reaching for Matt, who had just come back into the room.

"Daddy, ca'my have some juice?"

"What do you say?" Matt asked, setting down the two mugs on the table.

"Peas?" Shinji hadn't yet mastered the use of the letter L.

Matt walked back into the kitchen and poured a glass of juice for each child and headed back into the dining room.

"Were you bouncing on the bed again last night?" Tuesday said suddenly, who had ben quietly eating her breakfast. Matt paused in mid step and raised his eyebrows, and Tai almost choked on his pancakes.

"Er... what do you mean?" Matt asked.

"Your bed was banging against the wall last night. I told Shinji you were bouncing on the bed." She took a sip of the juice Matt had set down for her. "That's bad, you're not supposed to jump on your bed."

Tai's huge chocolate colored eyes were opened a bit wider than usual.

"Um..." he leaned over and whispered to Matt. "What are we supposed to say?"

"I don't want to lie to her..." Matt said, "but..."

He turned to his daughter and smiled nervously, "It must have been your imagination!"

Tai slapped Matt on the side of the head and glared at him.

"I thought you said you didn't want to lie!"

Tuesday looked back and forth between her two fathers, confused, while Shinji dropped his pieces of pancake on the floor and watched the cats eat them.

"Mmph, the 'Where do babies come from' talk isn't going to work here..." Matt said, glancing at Tuesday. She still appeared to be waiting for an answer.

"No, you think!?" Tai said.

"Tuesday, um..." Matt stopped and thought for a second. "When two people, well, when two grown up people care for each other very much, they like to express their love for one another."

"How?" She asked.

"Tai, a little help here?" He turned and scowled at his husband, who had been watching with his chin resting on his fist and his elbow on the table.

"Er," Tai sat up straight. "We'll tell you all about that when you're older!" he said, a sweatdrop forming on the side of his head.

"Much older," Matt added.

Tuesday opened her mouth to say something, but was cut short by a squeal of delight coming from the high chair.

Matt and Tai looked over to see that Shimofuri and Kikoueti had jumped up onto the high chair tray and were gobbling up Shinji's breakfast. He laughed and pulled Kikoutei's tail, but she was too busy eating a piece of bacon to do anything about it.

"BAD KITTIES!" Tai yelled, and shooed them away.

"YOU DAMN CATS!" Matt yelled after them.

"Yami, don't swear in front of the kids,"

"Sorry."

Tai looked down at his son's half eaten breakfast, none of which had been eaten by him.

"I guess it's cereal for you this morning," he sighed. Matt cleared off the cat contaminated breakfast plate and came back with a bowl of cereal.

"Now eat your Cheerios or I'll feed you to a bear."

"Matt!"

Shinji did finally eat his breakfast...one Cheerio at a time...

  
  
  
  


"Daddy Tai!!" Tuesday cried, pulling on the bottom of Tai's shorts. "Tell Daddy Matt to hurry up!"

"He has to pay the lady in the booth or we can't go inside, sweety," Tai said, looking down at her. He was holding Shinji while Matt stood near them and payed the admission fee to get into the wildlife park.

"Tuesday, don't whine," Matt scolded, taking their tickets from the woman he had paid.

"Did you get a map?" Tai asked when Matt stepped back over to him.

"Yeah," he knelt down in front of his daughter and showed her the map of the park. "What animal do you want to see first?"

"Can we see the wolfies, please?" She asked, pointing when she saw the picture of the wolves on the map.

"That's my girl," Matt said, grinning.

Shinji looked around at all the animal pens around him and sucked his thumb as they walked to the wolf dens. Tuesday had a hold on Matt's hand and was dragging in back and forth across the walkway whenever she saw something that interested her.

"Look!" She pulled him over to the tiger pens and Tai followed and stood behind them. "There's big kitties sleeping over there."

"Those are tigers," Matt said. One of the tigers opened it mouth in a huge yawn, revealing the rows of huge white teeth inside. When Tuesday got a glimpse of the giant front fangs, 20 times bigger than the ones their cats at home had, she shrieked and hid behind Tai.

"Hey, it's ok, he's just yawning," Tai said, looking behind him.

"Kitty!" Shinji yelled, reaching towards the edge of the tiger cage. He had apparently just noticed the group of tigers sleeping on the sunny rock on the other side.

"Heh, yes, it's a kitty," Matt said, ruffling his son's hair. "A very BIG kitty."

Tai smiled and glanced behind him again.

"Hey, where did Tuesday go?"

Matt looked all around, started to panic for a moment, until he saw Tuesday pressed up against the fence of the petting zoo, her little hands hooked on the chain link fence.

"I think somebody wants to go feed some baby animals."

Tai and Matt started over towards the petting zoo.

"Are you sure she'll be alright? What if a goat bites her or something?" Tai said as Matt opened the door in the fence.

"Oh, she'll be ok. They wouldn't let kids pet the animals if they were going to bite them."

Matt took Shinji for a while and sat down on a bench while Tai bought Tuesday some food to feed to the animals. While Tai was gathering up the animal food and Tuesday was hopping up and down next to him, a little goat climbed up on the bench and Shinji started petting its head.

"Are you going to pet the goat too, Matt?" Tai giggled as he walked over and sat down.

"Er...no, I don't really like livestock," he answered, eyeing the goat which was now eating a cracker from Tuesday's hand.

"Aww, but it's so cute."

"I don't like animals that much, Tai."

"Not even me?" Tai grinned and leaned his head closer to Matt, kissing his cheek.

"You're only an animal in bed..."

"You bet." Matt wrapped his arms around the little brunette and kissed his lips softly.

Matt broke the kiss when he felt a tug on his pant leg. He and Tai glanced down.

"I wanna go see the bunnies, please?" Tuesday said, sticking out her bottom lip.

"Ok, come on Shinji," Matt said. He picked up his baby son who was having his face licked by the goat and Tai held Tuesday's hand.

After the petting zoo, they went to see the wolves, and then the elephants. They had to calm Tuesday down from crying and buy her an ice cream cone after they saw the alligators, (It was Tai's idea) because she had begun crying hysterically. 

When they had seen almost every animal in the park and eaten lunch, they came to the boat ride that circled the central animal habitat. They climbed into the little boat and Shinji peeked over the side into the water.

"Daddy dere's a birdy," he pulled Tai's shirt pointed to a little duck swimming around in the water.

"It's a duck, Shinji, do you want to feed it?" he asked. Shinji nodded and Tai gave him a cracker, which the duck accepted and ate.

As the boat floated down the small, man-made river, Matt and Tai realized their children had both fallen fast asleep, with Tuesday leaning on Matt and Shinji leaning on Tai.

"I guess they're all worn out," Tai commented, yawning.

"You seem a little worn out yourself," Matt said, pulling his husband closer to him.

"I little bit. I mean, I run 2 miles at every soccer practice, and it's still hard keeping up with these two."

Matt ran his fingers through Tai's soft hair and felt him start to fall over against his shoulder.

" I know what you mean, but I love taking care of them. I'd be lost without my children, I love them so much. What I ever did to deserve such a perfect family, I'll never know. A gorgeous husband to come home to every day and two beautiful children...could life possibly get any better?"

Matt waited a moment for Tai to give a response, but his only answer was a gentle snoring. He wrapped his arms around his sleeping family and held them close to him. The boat floated around the bend and drifted into the shade. Matt closed his eyes, sighed contentedly, and dozed off.


	4. Part Four

Note: There isn't much lovey stuff between Matt and Tai in this chapter, it's most about the kids. (There will be more later, don't you worry) All the digidestined have the same jobs mentioned in episode 50 of season 2 unless stated otherwise. And if you don't like the couples I picked out for everyone... uh, sorry? They're not in it much so don't worry about it.

  
  


~~~~~

  
  


Shinji was sitting on the floor of the apartment, screaming at the top of his little lungs. Tai was lying on the couch, sound asleep by some miracle, despite all the noise. 

"Tuesday, let your brother play with that," Matt said, storming in from the kitchen.

"No! It's mine." She was holding the doll she had been playing with just high enough that Shinji couldn't reach it. It was the one doll that most little girls have that they play with more than any other, until its hair is a mess and most of the accessories are missing.

"Don't you talk back to me young lady..." He said, narrowing his eyes.

"Shinji wants to play with his own toys," she replied. She often let Matt and Tai know what her brother was thinking, or what she wanted him to be thinking. 'The baby wants me to have his juice/milk/cookie,' or 'The baby told me I could play with it,' were some common replies when Matt or Tai told her to share. Since Shinji couldn't talk very well yet he didn't get a chance to put up much of an argument, but the two young men were used to their daughter's antics. She was not a brat, far from it, she was usually extremely well behaved and polite for a four year old, but she liked to have things go her own way most of the time. 

"He told you that, huh?" Matt replied, folding his arms across his chest. Tuesday nodded and held the doll further away from the baby's outstretched arms. Matt grabbed it quickly from her and handed it to his son. 

"Daddy! Give it back, it's mine!" She shrieked. The argument would have continued but the doorbell rang suddenly.

"Huh, wha, what's going on?" Tai said, waking up. Matt glanced over at the brunette sitting up on the couch. How he could sleep through two screaming toddlers but be woken up by something like a doorbell, Matt would never know.

The tall blonde strolled over to the doorway, almost tripping over the cats in the process, he swore at them, got scolded by Tai for swearing in front of the kids, and at last, opened the door. 

The doorbell had rung about four more times during this whole process, causing Matt to become annoyed and he swung the door open shouting,

"WHAT, oh, it's you guys."

"Hey! How's it goin!?" Davis said, grinning. Ken was standing behind the considerably shorter man and waved cheerfully.

"Hey Davis, hi Ken!" Tai said getting up and standing by his husband. "What are you guys doing here?"

"We just got home and we brought you back some stuff!" Davis said. The two of them held up packages and Matt and Tai invited them inside. Taking their shoes and jackets off at the door, they were greeted by their 'niece'.

"Uncle Davis!" she squealed jumping up into Davis's arms.

"How's my favorite girl in the whole world?" Davis said, hugging her. 

"Hello, Tuesday," Ken said, smiling.

"Hi Uncle Ken..." Tuesday blushed and hid her face against Davis's shoulder. It was no secret that the little girl had a huge crush on the handsome blue haired man.

"Shinji are you going to say hello?" Matt asked. Shinji looked up from trying to pull the doll's head off and ran over. Instead of saying hello to anyone he looked inside the bags Davis and Ken had left on the floor and pulled out a wrapped box.

"Kissmas peasent!" He said, holding it up.

"Uh, not exactly," Matt said smiling.

"We got something for everyone," Ken said. He took the three packages and handed them to their proper owners. Ken and Davis had been married for a few years but had no children of their own. For this reason they showered gifts on Tuesday, Shinji and Yamachi and offered to babysit whenever the need arose. They also enjoyed traveling when Ken had time off from work and always brought back souvenirs. 

The other digidestined had either not married yet or hadn't gotten around to starting a family. Mimi and Joe were together and married, an unlikely combination though, Mimi being a model and Joe a doctor. She assured everyone though that she was the healthiest model in Japan. Sora and Izzy had been dating for a few years, with a wedding in the works, and Cody and Yolei had been seeing each other on and off. Yolei's job as a lady scientist (IN YOUR FACE 'HOUSEWIFE') kept her from having a very active social life.

Tuesday opened her present and found a beautifully crafted porcelain doll in a kimono.

"Oohh..." she marveled at her new toy.

"I think that's going on your shelf until you're old enough not to break it," Matt said, reaching for the box.

"No, I wanna play with it now! Please?" she begged.

Tai grabbed the doll Tuesday had been playing with previously out of Shinji's mouth and handed it to her.

"Here, play with this."

"Thank you, Daddy Tai." 

"Ugh, Tai..." Matt groaned, all his work getting the doll away from her having just been undermined.

"What?" Tai asked, puzzled.

"Nothing..." Matt shook his head and sighed.

Tai helped Shinji get the paper off his present to reveal a Yami Yugi action figure and a pack of Yu-Gi-Oh cards.

"You got our two year old Yu-Gi-Oh cards?" Matt asked.

"What?" Davis said, "That's like my favorite show!"

"Davis... he's two. What is he going to do with them?" The blonde said, raising his eyebrow.

Shinji then threw the pack of cards at the cats who were napping in their bed by the couch and giggled with delight when Kikoutei sprung up from a sound sleep.

"Does that answer your question?" Davis said.

"Bad boy Shinji, don't hurt the kitties!" Tai yelled.

"Ok, he can keep them," said Matt.

"Yami!"

Matt grinned. Tai and Matt opened their gift, finding a lovely china set and a new quilt for their bed. There was also a book about the top 10 best soccer players of the century for Tai, since they knew he wouldn't appreciate the household items as much as Matt would.

  
  


"You guys should go on a vacation, you're always home," Davis said after supper. Matt and Tai had invited the pair to stay for the evening. Shinji and Tuesday were now playing in their room and the adults were sitting at the dining room table.

"We never have time, we're always taking care of the kids or working," Matt replied, sighing.

"Why don't you have one of your assistant managers run the music store for you for a week and you two can go for a trip?" Ken suggested to Matt.

"Yeah, our team sucked this year so the season's over for us," Tai said, referring to his soccer team.

Matt swirled what was left of his tea around in the bottom up the cup.

"Who would take care of the kids though? Kari has a lot of work to do, school is starting in a few weeks." He said.

"Ken and I can do it!" Davis said. Ken nodded in a agreement.

"For a week?" Matt said.

"You two work during the day too," Tai pointed out.

"I'll stay home for a week, there's other people to push the noodle carts around now ya know," Davis replied.

"I usually get home around 4 unless I'm working on a case," Ken added.

"Come on, when's the last time you two had a week alone, your honeymoon?" Davis said, nudging Matt in the arm with his elbow.

Matt and Tai looked at each other for a moment.

"A week away couldn't hurt..." Matt said.

"Wait, who's going to take care of my cats?" Tai remarked suddenly.

"Leave them here, maybe they'll eat each other."

"Matt! Stop being a cat hater," Tai said, shoving him slightly. Matt just smirked and said,

"Sora can probably come feed the cats, she likes them."

"So, whattya say?" Davis said, trying to get an answer out of them.

"Well... it sounds good to me, Yami?"

"Sure." Tai smiled and Matt shoved a cookie in his husband's mouth.

Ken and Davis grinned at each other. The discussion was interrupted though, by a loud wail coming from the children's bedroom. 

"Let's see what they broke this time..." Matt groaned, getting up.

"Hopefully not a bone," Tai said, and hurried after his husband.

  
  


~~~~~

  
  


"Uncle Ken... are you awake?"

Ken opened his eyes when he heard the tiny voice and saw a little pigtailed figure step into the dark room.

"Tuesday, what's wrong?" He switched the light on the nightstand on and sat up. She came over and climbed up into the bed and sat in Ken's lap.

"I can't sleep, I miss my daddies..." She sniffled and hugged her beaten up, baby brother bitten doll to her chest. Tai and Matt had decided to go for a week long vacation and left Tuesday and Shinji in Ken and Davis's care while they were away.

"Don't worry, they'll be home in a few days." That didn't seem to cheer her up very much. "And I bet they'll bring back something nice for you," he added, causing Tuesday to smile a little.

Davis snorted and rolled over in his sleep, muttering something. Tuesday looked at the other side of the bed for a minute.

"Uncle Davis snores so loud, how can you sleep?" She asked.

Ken smiled and smoothed her hair out. 

"I'm used to it."

"Can I sleep with you, please?" She asked after Ken rolled Davis onto his stomach to stop his snoring.

"Sure," He moved over and let her slide between them. Ken turned the light off and settled back against his pillow.

"How come you don't have any kids, Uncle Ken?"

"Davis and I just haven't decided we want a family yet." He tucked in the covers around her and made sure she was settled in. Her blonde hair rested gently around her head in the nook between Davis and Ken's pillows.

"Are you a police man?" She asked.

"I'm a private detective, it's a little like a police officer."

Tuesday yawned and snuggled further into the pillows.

"Do you have a gun?"

"Yes, but never touch it, ok?"

"Have you ever shot somebody?"

"No, I've never had to."

"Do you catch bad people?"

"I try my best to."

Davis began to snore loudly again and shifted onto his back.

"Does Uncle Davis drool like my Daddy Tai?"

Ken smiled, "Sometimes."

"Why does Uncle Davis say Dude a lot?"

"That's his catchphrase."

"Why does Daddy Tai leave the seat up on the potty and then Daddy Matt yells at him?"

"Um... I don't know."

She paused for a moment.

"Why do you have blue hair?"

Ken laughed softly. "Go to sleep, Tuesday."

  
  
  
  


~~~~~

  
  


"Daddy Matt I don't wanna go..."

"But you were so excited about it yesterday, come on, it'll be fun"

The Ishida family was standing outside the large building with children and their parents walking by them on the sidewalk. The car was parked by the curb and Tai stood with Matt and Tuesday, holding the baby. The day had come for one of the big moments in every child's life, the first day of kindergarten. She was dressed in a little skirt and sweater set, with a book bag that looked far too big for her hanging on her back.

"Aunt Kari is your teacher, don't you want to see her?" Tai said.

"Yeah..." she answered hesitantly. She started chewing on her fingernail and looked up at the school. It seemed huge to her, but then again, most things seem huge to someone who is just over three feet tall.

"Can you come too?" She asked, looking back up at Matt and Tai.

"Daddies aren't allowed to come to school," Tai said. Shinji, getting bored, then started pulling his hair and laughing. "Ow, ow... stop, stop."

"Then can I bring Shinji with me?"

"Um, no..." Matt said, gently pushing her towards the front doors and then helping Tai get his hair out of the little boy's hands. "You can't bring your baby brother to show and tell. Besides, he might rip everyone's hair out..." 

"Mmph..." Tuesday wrapped her arms around Matt's leg and held onto him.

"Tuesday, let go. You'll have a great day at school, I promise. Aunt Kari will be there and you'll get to make new friends!" He freed Tai's hair from Shinji's clutches and walked closer to the front door with Tuesday still hanging on his leg and Tai following behind.

"I wanna stay with you!!" She was now on the verge of a temper tantrum.

"Aunt Kari told me you get cookies," Tai said out of nowhere.

"Yummy, cookies!" She immediately let go of Matt's leg and started running towards the school with the other children.

"Bye bye, Daddy Matt and Daddy Tai!" she yelled after her as she went through to doors to find the way to her new classroom. She scampered down the hall with her blonde pigtails bobbing up and down the entire time.

Matt stared for a moment and then looked back at Tai, somewhat in amazement.

"How did you do that...?"

"Duh Matt, EVERYBODY likes cookies!"


	5. Part Five

"And then we all said the alphabet and I remembered every letter  
except f, and then we finger-painted, and then we had a snack, and then  
we played outside, and then we wrote numbers, and then..."  
That night at dinner, Tuesday relived her entire day at school for her  
fathers, for what seemed like the hundredth time. Matt and Tai ate and  
tried to listen to every word while Shinji dropped every other piece of  
his rice on the floor for the cats to eat.  
"And after that we had lunch and I had chocolate milk, and then we  
read a story and I even readed some words!"  
"You read some words, not readed," Matt corrected.  
"Yeah," she halfway acknowledged and kept going. "And then we had a  
nap, and then we played a game and I played with this boy but I forgot  
what his name was but he had green socks."  
"You forgot the part about going outside again," Tai added, since he  
had already heard the story in perfect order many times since school had  
ended.  
"Oh yeah! And we went outside again!" She said happily and finally  
started eating her dinner, which was surely cold by now.  
"At least we know she has a good memory," Matt said, wiping Shinji's  
face clean.  
"And a healthy voice box," Tai said, grinning.  
Matt rose to gather the dinner plates shortly after, knowing Tuesday's  
story was coming to an end. Tai lifted Shinji from his food covered  
highchair and took him in for his bath, setting the detachable tray on  
the floor for Kikoutei and Shimofuri to lick clean. Tuesday helped her  
father wash the dishes while Tai washed her brother, and after taking a  
quick bath herself, it was time for bed.  
The blonde tucked the little girl under her blankets while Tai gave  
the not entirely potty trained baby a diaper for the night.  
"Did I tell you the part about the finger-painting?" She asked as she  
settled under her covers.  
"About five times," he said, smiling.  
"Do I get to go to school again tomorrow?"  
"Every day except Saturday and Sunday," Matt informed her and received  
a huge grin and giggle in return. This was certainly a huge change from  
the hesitant child he had dropped off that morning.  
"What are we gonna do tomorrow?" She asked.  
"You'll just have to wait and see," he said. "I'm sure it'll be even  
more fun than today."  
She hugged her ragged doll, whose name had just recently been changed  
to Koki after Tuesday decided she did not like the previous name. Matt  
kissed his daughter on the forehead as Tai walked in to lay the already  
dozing Shinji down to sleep in his crib.  
"Daddy Tai, don't forget me!" Tuesday hollered.  
"Shh, you'll wake your brother up," Matt whispered to her.  
"I wouldn't forget you," the brunette said, leaning down beside  
Tuesday's bed to give her a hug and kiss goodnight. "Sweet dreams,  
cutie."  
"Goodnight, daddy."  
The couple left the room, Matt turning the light off behind them. Tai  
strode down the hall to the living room, yawning and plopping down on the  
couch. Matt walked behind him and placed a CD in the player. Soft music  
began to echo through the room as he sat down next to his husband.  
"Yami, I wanna watch TV..." Tai whined.  
"Why don't we forget about the TV tonight," Matt said seductively,  
running his finger down the middle of his partner's chest.  
The side of Tai's mouth twitched slightly and he let Matt ease him  
onto his back.  
"Maybe that's... a good idea," he gasped, feeling the musician's lips  
against his neck.  
During their vacation the week before, they had finally been able to  
make love without having to worry about being quiet for the first time in  
four years. For Tai, silencing his moans and screams was extremely  
difficult and the time alone was a welcome break, although both had  
missed their children desperately.  
Taking the noise level into account, they quickly moved their  
activities into the bedroom with the door closed, and all clothing was  
quickly removed. Tai ran his finger's through his husband's blonde hair  
while having his nipples sucked on delicately. He was already starting  
to sweat and breathe heavily as the excitement rose. Matt rolled the  
athlete onto his side and sidled up behind him. Tai moaned and took  
Matt's fingers into his mouth, toying with them with his tongue while  
Matt nibbled lightly on his ear. The taller man's free hand went to  
work, and soon they were joined together, rolling over the covers, their  
legs entangled, knocking pillows to the floor. They kissed deeply while  
the brunette felt an overpowering feeling start to pulse through him.  
Each breathe was sharp and powerful, Tai could feel his legs shaking from  
the intense sensation building up inside him. Matt bit his neck softly,  
reached his hand down between them to pleasure his husband even further.  
Each thrust of his body into his gorgeous lover felt better and better.  
Tai clutched at him and threw his head back suddenly, unable to stand it  
anymore. Matt felt a sudden warmness against his abdomen and Tai's  
tightening around him caused him to climax quickly and silently, but with  
nearly more force than he could bear.  
"Yami... Yami..." the brunette choked. Tai was shaking from head to  
toe and his eyes were glazed over from the sheer bliss. Matt looked down  
at him, his blonde hair sticking to the sides of his face from all the  
sweat. They stared, and then Matt bent down and kissed his husband like  
his lips contained the last drop of water in an endless desert.  
"I love you so much..." he whispered.  
"I love you too, Yami..."  
  
~~~~  
  
"Uh huh, all right, that's sounds great, we'll be there," Matt said,  
hanging up the phone.  
"Who was that?" Tai asked from the living room, reading a sports  
magazine while keeping an eye on Tuesday and Shinji who were playing on  
the floor.  
"Some lady from the school, there's a parent teacher conference  
tomorrow night." He walked out of the kitchen and sat next to Tai. "All  
the parents from Tuesday's class are invited so everyone can meet each  
other and the teacher."  
"But we already know the teacher, she's my sister," Tai said,  
apparently not wanting to give up his Saturday evening.  
"It's a chance for us to meet the other parents too, Tai. Tuesday's  
going to be making new friends and I want to get to know their families."  
"What about the kids?" Tai asked.  
"They're having a play group for people to drop their kids off during  
the meeting, so everything's taken care of."  
"Yami..." Tai whined, "there's a soccer documentary I want to watch on  
tomorrow night!"  
"Record it."  
"I don't wanna go..." He moaned. Sitting around with a bunch of  
middle-aged mothers for hours was not his idea of a good time.  
"Well you're going," Matt said firmly, "or no sex for a week."  
"Yami!"  
"Daddy, what's sex?" Tuesday said, looking up from the stuffed animals  
she and her brother had been playing with.  
Matt blinked.  
"It's a brand of breakfast cereal!" Tai yelled.  
"Can we get that kind?" She asked, crawling up into his lap.  
"Ceweal, ceweal, ceweal!" Shinji screamed, slamming a stuffed bear  
against the floor and giggling happily.  
"Calm down Shinji, you're going to rip its head off," Matt said,  
sliding off the couch to distract his son with another toy before the  
innocent bear met its demise.  
"That kind of cereal his only for grown ups," Tai said, knowing he was  
digging a deeper hole for himself.  
"Why?" She asked.  
"Because it's gross," Tai answered while a squirrel plushie went  
flying across the room.  
"What does it taste like?" She inquired.  
"Sex is NOT a breakfast cereal," Matt said, once Shinji had finally  
forgotten about the stuffed animals and started drawing in a coloring  
book.  
"Then what is it?" Tuesday asked as Matt sat back down onto the couch.  
"Well..."  
"Matt, she's not even five yet!" Tai said.  
"She deserves to know something about it," he said, glaring at the  
brunette. Tuesday looked back and forth between her fathers patiently  
while Shinji talked to himself quietly on the floor and colored.  
"Yeah but, Yami..." Tai groaned.  
"We'll just explain the basics now and tell her the rest when she's  
older," Matt said.  
"Why don't we just save the whole thing for when she's older?"  
"Because then she'll just hear a bunch of stupid stuff at school and  
won't know what to think!"  
"Daddy..." Tuesday said, poking Matt in the stomach suddenly. She  
pouted and looked up at him, apparently having waited long enough.  
"Ok, Daddy Tai and I will tell you now," he said.  
"Do I have to!?" Tai cried. Matt simply narrowed his icy blue eyes  
at Tai, and after nearly ten years of marriage, Tai knew this was the  
sign that his husband meant business.  
"All right, Tuesday... sex is..."  
"Not actually a breakfast cereal," Tai interrupted.  
"Yeah, it's definitely not cereal."  
"You told me that already!" She squealed.  
"Ok, ok...." Matt was having more difficulty now than he thought he  
would. "Sex is something grown ups do together when they really love  
each other."  
The little girl settled between the two men and listened attentively.  
"They kiss and touch each other to make the other person feel good,  
and sometimes when a man and lady have sex a baby is born."  
"But... you're not ladies..." She said.  
"Men can't have babies together," Matt said.  
"Why?"  
"Because boys have different bodies than girls, and only girls can  
have babies."  
"Can two girls make a baby?" She asked.  
"No, only a boy and girl can."  
"Then where did I come from!?" She said frantically.  
"Well..."  
"The stork!" Tai chimed in.  
"No, NOT the stork," Matt growled.  
"None of this would have happened if you didn't have to go and open  
your big mouth!" Tai yelled.  
"Not as big as yours!" Matt yelled back. This extremely childish  
argument between two grown men would have continued if it had not been  
for the tremendous shriek that sounded at that moment. The pair looked  
up to see Shinji smiling satisfactorily with a crayon in his hand, and  
the entire bottom half of the front door covered in scribbles.  
"No, Shinji!!" Matt sprung up off the couch and snatched the crayon  
out of his son's hands and hurried to the kitchen to find some cleaners.  
"That's bad, Shinji!" Tai scolded, picking him up. "Only draw on  
paper!"  
The baby then started to scream uncontrollably at the sight of Matt  
kneeling down to scrub away his masterpiece.  
"I think someone needs a nap..." Tai groaned.  
"Daddies!" Tuesday yelled from the couch. "What's sex!?"  
"Later, Tuesday!" They both yelled at the same time. The conversation  
would obviously have to wait for another day.  
  
~~~~  
  
Matt and Tai entered the conference room of the primary school the  
next night after having dropped Tuesday and Shinji off at the play group  
across the hall. The meeting table had been removed, and the chairs were  
set up in an oval so all the parents could see each other easily.  
"Yami, there are practically no other dads here..." Tai whispered.  
"Well they're uncaring fathers," Matt said as he sat down.  
Tai looked around at the other parents in the room, the majority of  
which were women, just as he had thought they would be. Many were  
talking like they had known each other forever and Tai suddenly felt like  
a foreigner in a strand land.  
"Hi guys!" They heard someone say from behind. They both turned to  
see Kari smiling down at them.  
"Hiya, Kari," Tai said, standing to hug her.  
"Hey, Kari," Matt said.  
"I'm really glad you both could come," she said. "Last year was the  
first time I organized one of these meetings for the kindergarten classes  
and everyone thought it was a really great idea to have one again."  
"What are we going to do anyway?" Tai asked.  
"Just get to know everyone and talk a little about your kids and  
lifestyle, it's a great chance to share parenting stories," she said,  
grinning. Another teacher entered the room then and tapped Kari on the  
shoulder, whispering something quickly.  
"I'll be right back," she said when the other teacher had left. "We  
have a little crisis in the other room with some building blocks."  
"Matt... I don't wanna talk," Tai mumbled after a few minutes of  
eyeing the chattering women.  
"But you're always the first to talk wherever we go," Matt said.  
"These women all remind me of my mom and how much she embarrassed me  
when I was little, I feel dumb sitting here."  
"I'm sure nobody thinks you're dumb," Matt said, taking his hand and  
squeezing it gently. He had a feeling the real reason Tai didn't want to  
talk to anyone was in protest of having to miss his soccer documentary.  
In a few minutes the rest of the parents, or rather, the rest of the  
mothers had arrived and Kari began the meeting. Each woman or couple  
introduced themselves and told a bit about their child, with some  
information from Kari about what things were like in the classroom during  
each turn. Tai stared at the floor during most of the introductions and  
paid almost no attention until Matt elbowed him in the side. He sat up  
and looked around, then suddenly tried to appear interested when he  
realized their turn was approaching.  
Once the previous mother had finished speaking, the entire group  
turned to look at Matt and Tai. The brunette felt incredibly stupid  
having everyone stare at him and prayed Matt would handle most of the  
talking.  
"I'm Yamato Ishida and this is my husband Taichi," Matt said in his  
most polite and charming voice. "We're Toutoi Ishida's parents,"  
"Better known as Tuesday," Kari added. "Matt and Tai are actually my  
brother and brother-in-law," she said to the rest of the group.  
Tai noticed two mothers whispering and shooting himself and Matt  
wicked glares from across the room.  
"Do you have a question, Mrs. Toshi?" Kari asked the shorter and  
stockier of the two whispering women.  
"You mean to say that you two men are raising a child together?" The  
woman said disdainfully.  
"Well, she's our daughter after all," Matt replied calmly.  
"Don't you think it's a bad influence for a little girl to be raised  
by a homosexual couple?" Mrs. Toshi asked, putting extra emphasis on the  
word 'homosexual'.  
"Are you questioning our parenting skills?" Matt asked, not quite as  
calmly as before.  
Tai clenched his teeth hearing this woman's moronic words and was  
about ready to throw a chair at her face.  
"It's not right for a child to be denied a mother," she said.  
"Listen lady!" Tai finally piped up. "You've got a lot of nerve  
telling us how to raise our kids!"  
"I think most of the parents will agree with me," she said, glaring at  
him. "Two men should not be allowed to have children."  
A murmur of agreement was heard from only three or four other people  
in the room, but it was enough to make both Matt and Tai nearly furious.  
  
"Excuse me," Kari said before any more harsh words were exchanged. "I  
happen to know that my brother and his husband are excellent parents and  
they have no problems taking care of their daughter or son."  
"So now two children are being subjected to this abnormal life?" The  
woman who had been whispering to Mrs. Toshi before said.  
"Our life is perfectly normal," Matt said angrily.  
"Nobody here is telling you how to live your life!" Tai practically  
yelled.  
"Any idiot knows that a child needs to be raised by a mother and  
father together, not two men claiming to be parents..." Mrs. Toshi  
declared.  
The tall blonde stood from his chair then, followed by the not so tall  
but just as angry Taichi.  
"This meeting was not held to condemn other people's families," Kari  
said, stepping in front of the two. "I carried Tuesday and her younger  
brother Shinji in my own body until they were ready to be born, and I  
would never had done it if I wasn't sure that Tai and Matt would give  
them the best life possible. I'm requesting that you don't insult my  
family any further," she said firmly.  
Mrs. Toshi then stood as well, receiving death stares from Matt and  
Tai from behind their little sister.  
"As a member of the PTA, your views on parenting and childcare lead me  
to question your abilities as a teacher."  
"I've been a teacher at this school for six years and I've never had  
any complaints about my teaching," Kari said.  
"How dare you make fun of my sister!?" Tai yelled, stepping forward.  
Even though they were both adults now, his instincts to protect Kari were  
just as strong as they had been when he was a child.  
"Tai," Matt placed his hand on his husband's shoulder before things  
could get further out of control. "I think we should go home now..." He  
said softly, still glaring across the room at Mrs. Toshi.  
Tai shot one last dirty look at the woman and turned to leave the room  
without another word, Matt closely behind him. Kari watched the pair  
leave and faced Mrs. Toshi once again.  
"May I please speak to you privately," she said. "I'm sorry,  
everyone..." She addressed the rest of the group and walked with Mrs.  
Toshi into an unused office connected to the meeting room.  
Matt and Tai took Shinji and Tuesday, who was extremely upset to leave  
her friends, from play group and drove home. They sat in bed together  
that night, Tai so angry he was close to crying. Matt held his arms  
around his beloved tightly, not knowing what to do to ease this anguish,  
since he himself was just as, if not more furious than Tai.  
"Oh god, Yami... What if that crazy bitch tries to take our kids away  
from us?" Tai sobbed.  
"She won't," he said, kissing Tai's cheek and pulling him closer.  
"I'll never, ever let that happen." 


	6. Part Six

::Note:: Five thousand yen is nearly fifty dollars ^_~ And since Tuesday has a big part in this chapter, I tried to make her have her own personality, but still seem like she's only four. I base a lot of what she does and says on my own cousin, who really _is_ a blonde haired, blue eyed, four year old girl. 

~~~~ 

"What started as a simple disagreement erupted into a screaming match, I felt so bad for the other guests. I haven't been that mad in such a long time, Tai," Kari said sadly to her older brother the next afternoon. Matt had picked Tuesday up from school and Shinji from home and driven them to _Shugotenshi Notes_ so they could spend the rest of the day at work with him. 

"Well what did she say?" Tai asked. 

"Awful things..." The young woman sighed. They sat on the sofa in the living room, snacking on riceballs from a previous lunch and drinking some tea Tai had prepared. 

"She's got four kids in the school system and she's a really influential member of the PTA, I really think she's going to try to get my job taken away from me." 

"Just because of your family!? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard," Tai said angrily. 

"TK was so mad when I came home last night, I had to stop him from calling up Mrs. Toshi's house and badmouthing her." 

"He should have!" Tai grumbled, glaring out the glass doors of the terrace. 

"Tai, that would have just made things worse." Kari took a sip of her tea, finishing off the cup and setting it back down on the coffee table. "I'm so worried now, though. There's a real possibility that I could lose my teaching position." 

"Not if I have anything to say about it..." The brunette said, forming his hand into a fist. 

"We're not kids anymore," Kari said, always the voice of reason. "You can't solve things by fighting your way out, it just doesn't work that way...." 

"Well it should!" He yelled. "If I had my way I'd march right down to that lady's house and show her a thing or two." 

Just then the front door to the apartment opened and a little goggle wearing toddler came scampering in. 

"Shinji, take your shoes off!" The tall blonde man said that walked in after him with Tuesday in his arms. 

"Yami, why are you home so early?" Tai asked, pulling Shinji into his lap and tugging the sneakers off his little feet. 

"Tuesday's been crying since we left the school," he said grimly, removing his own shoes and his daughter's before setting her down. The little girl had tears in her eyes and she poked at the carpet, sniffling softly. 

"But she was ok when she left the classroom," Kari said, kneeling down to hug her niece. 

"Some older kids were picking on her while she was waiting on the sidewalk for me," Matt said, collapsing into the armchair facing the coffee table. "One of them was that Toshi woman's older son, her kids are just as bad as she is." 

"What did they do!?" Tai said. 

"They were throwing pebbles at her and yelling that she had two dads..." He hissed, narrowing his eyes. "I was so close to beating the crap out of those brats. I told them I was going to hang them from a tree by their skanky little underwear if they didn't leave her alone, and they ran off." 

"Matt, you really shouldn't have said that..." Kari said, looking up at him. 

"Yeah, well, let them go cry to their mothers. If that woman is going to be such a bitch about this then so am I," he growled. 

"Mrs. Toshi and her supporters are going to be all over this now," Kari sighed. "She's probably going to claim that you were abusing her children." 

"Well her children were abusing my daughter!" He roared, scaring Kikoutei and sending her racing down the hallway into the other room. 

"This makes me so mad!" Tai said. "It's like there's nothing we can do." 

"There's always something we can do," Kari said, getting back up on the sofa and holding Tuesday in her lap. "We just have to go about it the right way. If Mrs. Toshi brings the issue to the school board, we have lots of friends who can help us that are important members of the community." 

"Ken can bust in and shoot up the place," Matt said, grinning, imagining the calm and mild mannered blue haired man breaking down the door of the school with Davis and his noodle cart close behind. 

"Izzy can confuse everyone to death with some high tech mumbo-jumbo," Tai giggled. 

"And Cody knows the law inside and out, we won't let anything slip by," Kari said, chuckling. The mood had lightened, and all three adults were now smiling, but someone in the room was still not satisfied. 

"Daddy!" Shinji screamed. 

Tai blinked and looked down at his son. 

"I wan snack!" He yelled, pointing at the kitchen and struggling to get out of Tai's lap. 

"Oh yeah, I promised to give them a snack when we got home," Matt said. 

"Can Aunt Kari make something?" Tuesday asked. 

"What's the matter with my snacks?" Matt said, folding his arms across his chest. 

"Aunt Kari is a teacher so she's smarter," Tuesday said, hopping off her aunt's lap and skipping into the kitchen. 

Tai and Matt both looked over at Kari with one eyebrow raised each. 

"I didn't tell her that, honest!" She laughed, waving her hands in front of her in defense. 

"Sure, Kari, whatever you say," Tai said. 

"A likely story," Matt added. 

"You two are impossible!" 

~~~~~ 

A week later, on Friday, neither the Ishida spouses nor Kari had heard any word from the school board about Mrs. Toshi's complaints, and hoped that her bark had been much worse than her bite. A normal schedule resumed, until one day school was canceled for parent teacher conferences on a day Matt and Tai were both busy. So, instead of dropping Tuesday off at kindergarten and Shinji off at daycare like they normally did on busy days, the children were dropped off at Ken and Davis's apartment early in the morning, since both men had luckily been free that day. 

"Uncle Ken, why are we here again?" Tuesday asked, pulling her shoes on at the front door, shortly before lunch time. 

"Because there's no school today, and your daddies both had to work," he answered, helping her tie her laces. 

"So are you and Uncle Davis my baby-sitters?" She said. 

"That's right." 

"I thought girls were baby-sitters, Auntie Sora is my baby-sitter sometimes, did you know that?" She said, kicking her feet around absentmindedly, making it very difficult for Ken to tie a proper bow. 

"Boys can be baby-sitters too," he said, once the shoes had finally been tied. 

"Ken! Can you come help me!" Davis yelled from the other room. 

"Stay here for a minute, Tuesday," Ken instructed, setting her on the sofa. 

Davis was wrestling with something on the edge of their bed, and happy baby giggles could be heard underneath all the commotion. 

"What's the matter?" Ken asked. 

"Matt and Tai said just leave him in a diaper today 'cause he doesn't know where our bathroom is that good but he won't hold still and let me change it!" Davis cried, being kicked in the face by Shinji the entire time, who was finding much delight in the whole situation. 

Ken smiled and walked over to help his struggling husband. On the floor were five clean diapers, a bottle of baby power knocked over, and Davis's goggles, which had apparently been kicked off his head. 

"Distract him while I put the new diaper on," Ken said. He kneeled down at the edge of the bed while Davis hopped onto the mattress and leaned over Shinji. 

"Hey, look over here Shinji, look at Uncle Davis!" Davis crossed his eyes and stuck his tongue out, causing the toddler to laugh at first. "That's right, don't pay attention to- OW, ow, ow, Ken he's got my nose!" Davis shouted. 

"Hold on a second," Ken said, finally fastening the fresh diaper in place and quickly rescuing the maroon haired man on the bed from Shinji's baby grip of death. 

"What's with this kid, anyways?" Davis asked, rubbing his nose. 

"Matt told me he's going through a grabbing phase," Ken said while pulling a pair of overalls on Shinji. 

"Yeah, well you better keep your hair away from him," Davis said, motioning towards Ken's navy blue hair that fell past his jaw. 

Just then, a loud metallic crash came from the living room. Ken scooped the baby into his arms and he and Davis hurried out the bedroom door to find Tuesday covering her mouth and looking guiltily down at the floor. 

"I didn't do it!" She squeaked, running to hide behind Ken's legs. 

"My soccer trophy!" Davis wailed, kneeling down to find one of his most prized trophies from high school broken right off its base. 

"Davis, we can fix it easily enough," Ken said, Shinji wiggling wildly in his grasp. 

"Yeah but, this was my favorite one!" 

"They're _all_ your favorite one," Ken said, glaring slightly and letting Shinji to the floor when he started screaming. He then bent down until he was eye to eye with Tuesday, who looked close to tears. 

"Can you please tell Uncle Davis you're sorry?" He asked. 

She nodded and scampered over to Davis, still examining his busted trophy on the floor. She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. 

"I'm sorry, Uncle Davis," she said softly. 

"Aw, don't worry about it, Tuesday, we'll fix it later," he sighed. 

Ken beamed happily at the precious moment until a loud buzz and grinding noise was heard from his small office right next to the living room. Shinji was nowhere in sight. 

"Shinji!" Ken dashed across the room and grabbed the baby, hoisting him over his shoulder, bringing nearly an entire ream of paper from the fax machine with him. "That's not for babies!" He said frantically, pulling the paper from Shinji's hands and pressing every button on the fax machine simultaneously to make it stop beeping at him. 

"Ken, are we ready to go yet?" Davis asked, entering the room. 

"Yes..." Ken groaned. All the chaos that had taken place that morning was actually in preparation for a trip to the park. After finding Shinji's shoes, making sure Tuesday had gone to the bathroom, cleaning up an overflowed toilet in said bathroom, digging Shinji out of a potted plant, getting Tuesday a glass of orange juice, finding Shinji's shoes again, packing the baby bag, dragging everything and everyone into the elevator, going back upstairs to let Tuesday use the bathroom again, getting _back_ into the elevator, traveling to the eighth, fourth, second and ninth floors because Shinji had gone on a field day with the buttons, and Davis running up five flights of stairs because the elevator was in use and they had forgotten Shinji's bottle, they FINALLY piled both children and themselves into the car and headed to the park for a picnic. By now, lunch time was nearly over. 

Later that day, Tuesday skipped across a grassy field to pick flowers with an ice cream cone in her hand, a new hat on her head, and a new teddy bear under her arm. 

"I hope she's finished, 'cause I'm running out of money..." Davis said, looking into his painfully thin wallet. 

"We've spent over five thousand yen in only a few hours but I just don't know how to say No to her," Ken said, holding a tired out Shinji in his arms. 

"And of course everything she wants, he has to have one too," Davis said, looking at the sleeping baby. 

"Look, Uncle Ken!" Tuesday said, scampering back over. "I picked a pink one for you!" She held up possibly the tiniest pink flower bud he had ever seen, roots still attached. He took it and smiled gratefully, and Tuesday ran back across the field to add to her bouquet. 

"But it's worth it, right?" Ken said, beaming down at the flower. 

"Yeah..." Davis said, grinning happily as they both watched Tuesday play in the patch of flowers she had found on that lovely day. 

~~~~ 

Monday, the next day of school, came quickly. Tuesday bid good-bye to her fathers on the sidewalk just like she did every morning, and entered the school, skipping the entire way. She found her kindergarten room, the one with the great big picture of the orange kitten on the door. She always remembered, since her own cat Kikoutei at home was orange. 

She walked inside, children were already gathered there for their morning routine of handing in their homework paper to Kari, or in this case, Mrs. Takaishi, taking off their shoes and coats, hanging up their backpacks, and taking their seats. Tuesday pulled her shoes off carefully and slipped them into the cubby with her name on it, but when she reached for her pair of classroom slippers, she was pushed aside roughly by another girl. 

"Hey! It's my turn right now!" She said, standing back up and stepping in front of her cubby. 

"My mom said don't play with you..." The taller girl said, sneering at her and pulling out her own pair of slippers. Tuesday pouted for a moment but quickly forgot the incident, she had never played with that girl anyway. She hung her jacket in the closet and removed her homework from her backpack to hand in. Last night it had been writing all the numbers up to fifty. 

She walked up to the desk where Kari was sitting writing something, and waited for the boy in front of her to turn in his paper. 

"Here Aunt Kari!" She said when she stepped in front of the desk, peeking over the side. 

"Thank you, Tuesday, and don't forget to call me Mrs. Takaishi in school, ok?" She said, accepting the paper. 

"Oh, I forgetted..." She hopped away from the desk and sat down in her own chair, looking at the writing in the corner of the chalkboard. Though she could not read very well yet, she knew her aunt would tell them all what it said later, it was the day's lesson plan, and was different every day. 

"Class is starting!" She heard Kari announce, and saw her stand up from her desk. "Everyone get in their seats, please." Any children who were still putting their things away hurried to their seats. 

"Did everyone have a good weekend?" Kari asked once all the students were seated. 

"Yes, Mrs. Takaishi," most everyone said in unison. 

She checked the name list quickly to make sure everyone was accounted for and flipped through the class planner after that. 

"It looks like today is Tuesday's turn to tell about her weekend," Kari said. 

Tuesday had almost forgotten, it was her lucky day! Each week, a different member of the class got to tell the story of what they had done the previous day, and she was even more excited than she would have normally been, because school had also been out on Friday. 

"Go ahead, Tuesday," Kari said, smiling. She sat down in the armchair at the front of the class that she also read the students stories from, and began listening attentively. 

"On Friday we had no school and my daddies had to go to jobs so my baby brother and me went to Uncle Ken and Uncle Davis's house. Um... we played with toys and then went to the park and ate food outside on the grass. Uncle Ken bought me a new hat and---" 

"Hey!" A black haired boy on the other side of the room interrupted. 

"Kenichi, please don't speak while someone else is telling their weekend story," Kari said sternly. 

"But why does Tuesday have two dads and no mom?" He said. 

Another boy raised his hand quickly but began talking before he had even gotten permission. "My dad said Tuesday's family is bad," he said loudly. 

Two or three more children began talking suddenly, and Kari rose from her chair. 

"Everyone, please, quiet down!" The noise level subsided and attention was at the front of the room. "Right now is Tuesday's turn to talk and it's against the rules to speak while someone else is speaking," she said. She tried hard to maintain her composure, but it was hard to be fair when her own family was being insulted. "You'll all get your turn, so no one interrupt again, please," she instructed. 

Kari sat back down in the armchair, turning to face Tuesday. 

"You may continue now, Tuesday," she said. 

"I'm.... done..." Tuesday said sadly, though she had been far from it. Why was everyone being mean to her today? 

Later at recess, Tuesday hurried over to the swing set, her favorite place to play. She hopped onto a swing and started moving back and forth, her pigtails flying in the breeze. As she tried pumping higher, she called out to two of her classmates who always played on the swings with her. 

"Somebody push me!" She giggled. The two girls looked at her for a moment, but then hurried off to play in the sandbox without saying anything. Tuesday stopped pumping and watched them run away. "How come nobody will play with me...?" She said. 

Instead of getting a push of speed though, someone ran up and pushed her right off the swing into the dirt. 

"Hey!" She yelled, brushing the sand off her knees and turning to face her attacker. It was a first grader, now was also their time for recess. The boy standing by the swings seemed much older and taller than any first grader she had seen before, and sassy as she was, how could she stand up to someone so big? 

"Go away," he said, kicking sand at her. 

"I was here first!" She said, getting up and glaring him in the eye. 

"You can't play here because your dads are gay, that's gross!" 

"They are not!" She shouted, assuming it was some kind of insult, she did not even know what he had meant. 

She shoved the boy out of the way and tried sitting back on her swing, but again, she went flying off, this time landing on her elbow and scraping it roughly on a sharp rock. Tuesday looked at the blood on her arm, and of course, since she was only four, now came the time to cry. She sat on the ground sobbing while the bully stole her swing and didn't care in the least about her injury. But then Tuesday was taken by surprise, when HE went flying to the ground. 

"Leave my cousin alone!" Someone shouted, and threw a clump of dirt at the boy's head. 

"I'm telling!" He whined, and ran off. 

"Tuesday, are you ok?" A young blonde boy, slightly bigger than Tuesday herself, knelt down on the ground. 

"Why do people keep picking on me today, Yamachi?" She sobbed, her lower lip protruding as far as possible. Yamachi, who was now six years old and in the first grade, looked over his little cousin carefully and saw that she was bleeding. 

"Come on, let's go inside," he said. He took her by the wrist and helped her up, and the two children ran inside the school building to Kari's classroom. 

"Mommy, Tuesday's bleeding," he said when they had come through the door. 

"What happened!" She said, rushing up from her desk to examine her niece's injury. 

"Somebody pushed her on the ground," he said. 

"Tuesday, who did this to you?" She asked, leading the little girl over to the sink to wash off her wound. 

"I dunno..." She said, still pouting and sniffling a bit. 

"Yamachi, do you know the person's name who knocked her down?" Kari asked her son. 

"No, he's just an ugly kid in my class." He said. 

"It's not nice to call people ugly, even if they _are_ mean to others," she scolded, but couldn't help but agree with him. Whoever would push an innocent little girl down without a care had to be slightly ugly on the inside, at least. 

"Excuse me, Mrs. Takaishi?" Kari and the two children looked at the door that led outside to see Shinji's teacher standing there, with the bully who had hurt Tuesday right behind her. 

"I need to take your son to the principal's office with me for a moment," she announced. 

"May I ask why?" Kari said, standing up straight after having placed a Band-Aid on Tuesday's elbow. 

"Apparently he's been throwing things at other students on the playground," she said, glaring down at the blonde boy, still standing protectively next to Tuesday. 

"I threw dirt at him 'cause he pushed my cousin!" Yamachi said defensively. 

"Is this true, Hiroshi?" She asked the boy by her side. 

"No, he just threw it at me and pushed me," he lied, sticking his tongue out at Yamachi once the teacher had turned away again. 

"Please come with me, Yamachi," she said, striding over and grabbing him by the hand. 

"Pardon me, but my niece is obviously injured, so I believe my son is telling the truth," Kari said to her coworker, pulling her child away from the woman's grasp. 

"I think we'll let the principal decide that," she said coldly. 

Kari led Tuesday and Yamachi with her to the door and all five headed to the principal's office, for what she feared would be a losing battle. 


	7. Part Seven

::Note:: A grade III tear of the gastrocnemius is a real thing, but i'm not a doctor, so if you happen to find something that's not completely accurate, sorry! 

~~~~ 

As it was, Yamachi ended up having to spend three days without recess, while Hiroshi, the bully who had pushed Tuesday to the ground, received no punishment. Though a child's playtime privileges may seem meaningless to most people, the injustice surrounding the incident was very vexing for the Ishida and Takaishi families. A child injures a little girl, simply because his parents have been spreading homophobic lies, and it is tolerated. Matt, Tai, TK and Kari made an agreement, that if these problems continued, they would organize a group to appear at the next school board meeting and bring the situation into the light. 

For the time being though, they tried to put it behind them. Kari's position did not seem to be in jeopardy, and Matt and Tai hoped that Tuesday's teasing would quickly end. They were putting their faith in people to do the right thing, although most rarely do. 

"Matt, I'm going running," Tai said, heading to the door one Friday afternoon. 

"Kay," Matt said from the couch, not even looking up from his book. Tai stepped to the front door and pulled his sneakers on, and just as he was about to step out of the apartment, he felt a small tug on the back of his pants. 

"Daddy, can I come too?" Tuesday asked, looking up at him with her sneakers in her hand. 

"I run a long way, sweety, I don't think you could keep up the whole time," he said, causing her to pout. 

"I can!" She said loudly. 

"Tai, why don't you just take a quick jog through the park today, she'll be ok," Matt suggested, looking up and adjusting his reading glasses. 

"I guess so," Tai said. He smiled down at Tuesday, who was pouting up at him. "Go put on your exercise clothes, hurry up!" he said, giving her a quick pat on the bottom. Tuesday nodded and ran as fast as she could into her room. She came back just moments later in a pair of blue gym pants and a T-shirt. 

"Ready daddy!" Tai helped her tie the laces on her sneakers and they departed. 

"Have fun you two," Matt called after them as they closed the door behind them. 

Tai jogged very slowly that day, Tuesday nearly having to sprint to keep up with him. She ran alongside her father quite well though, considering, her endless childhood energy powering her. 

"Did you have fun at school today?" He asked. 

"Yeah," she said, panting slightly as they made their way down the sidewalk towards the park. 

"Daddy, what does gay mean? People at school keep saying you are that." She said. 

"That's when a boy loves other boys instead of girls," he said. Tuesday blinked, thinking for a moment. She looked up at him as then ran. 

"Is that bad?" 

"No, of course not," he said, laughing slightly. "Daddy Matt and I love each other, right?" 

"If it's not bad, how come they say it mean to me...?" She said, looking down at her own feet hitting the sidewalk. 

Tai sighed and stared ahead, furrowing his eyebrows. They had reached the park by now, and he halted suddenly in a small field of grass with a bench sitting in the middle of it. 

"Are we done?" She said, confused as to why they had stopped their journey already. 

Tai bent down and picked her up, sitting on the bench and pulling the little girl into his lap. 

"Tuesday, sometimes people say bad things about other people, and the kids at school are trying to make fun of you when they say things about Daddy Matt and I." 

She fiddled with Tai's headband and quietly thought things over. She breathed deeply, her four year old mind trying hard to figure out how to say what she was feeling. Tai watched her blue eyes focusing on something in the distance, and wondered what was going on underneath those blonde pigtails. 

"Why do they make fun of me 'cause of that...?" She asked. 

"Some people think it's bad for kids to have two dads instead of a mom and dad," he explained sadly. 

"But I like you," she said. 

"I know, but there are people that don't care about that. They just think it's wrong." 

"Daddy, does that mean they hate you?" She asked, leaning against his chest. 

"Yeah, something like that," he said, hugging her tightly. 

"I thought you and Daddy Matt said you shouldn't hate people." 

"You shouldn't, but some people do anyway." 

"Even grown ups?" 

"Especially grown ups," he sighed. Tai felt upset that he had to explain a thing like prejudice to his daughter at such a young age. When she was born, many friends and relatives warned Matt and himself how hard it would be for two men to raise a child, but he never thought that hatred would really reach him. Things like that happened on television, or on the news, not to his own family. But now it was here, and little Tuesday simply could not understand how someone could disagree with a lifestyle that to her was completely normal. She had always assumed that parents were just two people that took care of you and loved you, and never considered that the idea of parenthood meant a both mother and father to most people. 

"I don't want to go to school anymore..." She whispered. 

"But you love school!" Tai said, startled. She leaned back and looked into his chocolate eyes, and began sobbing. 

"I don't want people to hate you so I won't go to school anymore!" She cried. Tai wrapped his arms tightly around her and let her teardrops fall onto his shirt. 

"It's all right, sweety, you can still go to school. If people say bad things to you, just ignore them, and if they won't stop, let Aunt Kari know so she can help you out." He rocked her gently and kissed the top of her head. 

"But I don't want them to hate you..." She said again from deep within his embrace. 

"Tuesday, do you love Daddy Matt and I?" He asked, tipping her head up to see her face. 

"Yeah, I love you, daddy," she said, sniffling. 

"As long as we all love each other, you don't have anything to worry about. Those kids at school can't hurt you as long as you remember to love your family no matter what they're like." 

He flashed his famous Tai grin at her, making her smile again and throw her arms around his neck. 

"Can we run some more now?" She asked, wiping the last remaining tears from her eyes. 

"Sure, we can get some ice cream on the way, ok?" He said, getting up from the park bench. 

"Daddy Matt says no ice cream before supper!" She squeaked. 

"Shhh, Daddy Matt doesn't have to know," Tai said, leaning down and winking at her. She covered her mouth and giggled, and they started off on their afternoon run once again. 

~~~~ 

Children at school soon grew tired of teasing Tuesday and things slowly turned back to normal, at least on the classroom level. During breaks in the teacher's lounge and weekly meetings of the PTA, Kari could hear hushed whispers, fragments of conversations, and noticed glances in her direction that told her the problem was not entirely over. 

Matt sat with Sora in the living room of the Ishida family's apartment one Friday morning. Shinji sat playing on the floor, Tai was at practice, and Tuesday was, of course, at school. Matt and Sora sipped coffee and talked while the baby entertained himself. Lifelong friends, the couple had been relying on Sora for advice since they were young. She visited often, and was like a mother to the children, taking care of them whenever a baby-sitter was needed. 

"I'm praying this Toshi woman is done harassing us. It's been almost two months and Kari is still hearing shit about it at school." 

"Matt..." She gave him a disapproving look. 

"Oh, sorry," he said, glancing down at his son. "I've been a father for five years and I still forget not to swear in front of them." 

She laughed slightly and finished up her coffee, setting the empty cup on the table. 

"A little slip is nothing," she said. "Actually, I really hope I can be as good a parent as you and Tai are." 

"Are you pregnant?" He asked bluntly. 

"No!" She exclaimed, nearly choking on the bite of cracker she had just taken into her mouth. "I'm just thinking about the future," she explained quickly. Though her wedding to Izzy was drawing nearer, thoughts of a family were still a long way off. 

"I'll settle for practicing on Tuesday, Shinji and Yamachi for now," she said, smiling. 

"Auntie Sowa," Shinji said, toddling up to the two adults with a sheet of paper in his hand. "I dwoo dis," he announced, shoving it into her face and climbing onto the sofa. 

"Shinji, it's... beautiful," she said, examining the mass of green scribbles on the page. She turned the paper over several times and Matt grinned on the arm chair, wondering how Sora could work her way out of the situation. 

"Why don't you tell me about it?" She asked, instead of risking hurting Shinji's feelings by inquiring what it was. 

"Um... well," he started, smiling cutely and shifting around in her lap. 

The phone rang then, and Matt rose to answer it while Shinji explained his latest piece of artwork to Sora. 

"Moshi moshi," he said, picking up the cordless phone from its base. 

"Ishida, is that you?" 

"Coach...?" The person on the other end of the phone was Tai's soccer coach, and a voice that could be recognized immediately by anyone who had ever heard it before. Coach was a tiny, dainty looking woman with dark, narrow eyes and long, jet black hair. Seeing her on the street, one would take her for a meek, quiet lady, but she was anything but. She was tough as nails, took no lip from any of her players, and was a complete expert when it came to the sport of soccer. She was extremely strict with the members of the team, but they played all the better because of it. She also demanded to be called only 'Coach' by all the players, and even a hint of hearing 'Mrs' start to leave someone's mouth and they would be running half a lap. She did not deny her womanhood, but wanted to make sure that on the field, everyone knew she was in charge. Tai called her coach so often even at home, that Matt had all but forgotten her real name. He sometimes felt sorry for her husband, though he had never actually met the man. She could be brutal, but was a kind person at heart. 

"Drop whatever you're doing, blondy," she commanded. 

"What...? Why, has something happened to Tai?" He asked, sensing slight worry in her voice under the firm instruction. 

"The klutz landed himself in the hospital, you'd better get down here," she said. "He's been whining for you." 

Despite the insults, Matt knew she would never have bothered calling him at home unless it was something serious. He quickly wrote down the room number Tai was in before hanging up the phone. He explained to Sora the situation and asked her to gather up Shinji and pick Tuesday up from school. She understood fully and hoisted Shinji up in her arms and began dressing him to go right away as Matt left. 

The blonde raced out of the apartment with his shoes barely on all the way and sped towards the hospital the second he could place the key in the ignition of his car. He tapped the steering wheel impatiently with his index finger as he drove, knowing he was going far too fast but not caring. His husband was injured, that was all that mattered at that moment in time. He sped through a red light, begging whatever powers that be to let him off the hook and keep him from getting stopped. 

He reached the hospital in record time, pulled lopsidedly into a handicapped parking space, only because it was the closest to the door, and left the car, not even bothering to lock it. He nearly tripped walking up the step as he hurried inside and looked around the emergency room for Coach or another member of the team. The emergency room was thankfully not busy, but just as he was approaching the desk to ask the receptionist for help, he heard someone calling out to him. 

"Matt!" 

The musician looked up and saw Joe rushing down the hallway with a bundle of papers in his arms. 

"Joe! Do you know where Tai is?" 

"Yeah," the frazzled doctor panted when he had reached Matt. "I was just in the other room looking over his x-rays." 

"But... you're an obstetrician," Matt said, puzzled. 

"I was on break when Tai arrived and since we're close friends I was assisting the doctor on call in the emergency ward." Joe regained his breath and adjusted his glasses. "I normally wouldn't interfere with another doctor's patient but Tai and I have known each other so long the emergency staff cut me some slack and let me help out even though I'm not really a member of this department. Actually I think--" 

"Joe!" Matt yelled. "I just asked where he was!" Joe had a bad habit of babbling under tense circumstances, and Matt was in no mood to wait through endless minutes of Joe talking at the moment. 

"Oh, right, he's down the hall here. It's pretty bad," Joe sighed, shuffling through the folder of papers he was holding. 

"What happened?" Matt asked as they walked swiftly down the hall, fearing the worst. 

"Well, apparently he's got a major tear in his gastrocnemius. That crazy coach lady told me they were running drills and he stumbled over a--" 

"He's got a... what?" Matt interrupted the blue haired doctor again, not even attempting to pronounce what he had just been told. 

"It's a main muscle in the lower leg," Joe explained. "He was practically screaming when they brought him in..." 

Matt bit his lip, relieved that Tai had not suffered some kind of fatal injury, but knowing that whatever had happened to his leg must have be incredibly painful to produce a result like that. Tai was very resilient when it came to pain, anything that hurt enough to make him scream was a very big deal. 

They rounded the corner and entered the recovery room, the brunette was lying in bed wearing a hospital gown and Coach was standing at his side. 

"Took you long enough," she said to Matt. 

"Taichi..." The blonde knelt down quickly next to his husband and kissed his forehead, clasping both his hands. "What happened?" 

"Just running and something made me fall and mess the hell outta my leg..." He said softly. He winced slightly as he spoke, still obviously in a great deal of pain. 

"It's a grade three muscle tear," Joe said forebodingly. 

"What does that mean?" Matt asked, holding Tai's hands tighter, not at all liking the tone of Joe's voice. 

"Grade three is as bad as it gets, and this is pretty bad. He's going to need surgery but the doctor on call will tell you more about that. He's reviewing the charts down the hall right now." 

"I'll go tell that no good quack to hurry up," Coach announced. She grabbed Joe by the arm as she walked by Tai's bed. "You too, skinny," she said, dragging the spectacled young doctor out of the room, giving the couple a chance to be alone together. 

"I don't think I've ever felt so much pain all at once," Tai said to his husband once they were alone. 

"I guess a massage would probably make it hurt more..." Matt said, looking down at Tai's calf. 

"Yeah, I can't even move it." 

Matt slid up and sat lightly on the edge of the bed, holding Tai's upper body in his arms. He kissed the injured athlete on the cheek and ran his fingers through his hair. 

"Sora's bringing the kids over, I asked her to get Tuesday from school early," he said, holding Tai close. 

"All right, does she know where to go?" 

Matt nodded, and kissed his brown eyed angel once again. Tai leaned up onto Matt's chest the best he could, rested against him while Matt stroked his soft hair affectionately. 

"Yami, what about Tuesday and Shinji, how am I going to help you take care of them if I can't even stand up?" Tai said, clutching Matt's shirt and pressing close to him. 

"Don't worry, the good thing about being the child of a digidestined is you have twelve adults to take care of you instead of just two," Matt smiled. Tai sighed and relaxed a bit, trying hard to enjoy the feeling of Matt's arms around him and not of the pain in his leg. He knew the kids would be all right, but he had always hated the idea of being helpless. 

"I was so scared when Coach called me..." Matt said in a breathy whisper, holding Tai to him as tight as he could without making the brunette uncomfortable. "I thought you had... I don't even know what I thought. I just kept fearing the worst." 

"What could be worse than a soccer player not being able to run?" Tai groaned. 

"A soccer player not being able to do anything at all..." 

Tai tipped his head up, those two brown pools of chocolate staring at Matt sadly. They kissed, and each tried to fathom what life would be like by himself, and soon found it was impossible to even imagine such emptiness. Since they day they had joined forever in marriage, even before that, all that they were was summarized in the other's loving smile. They were everything to each other, their passion and their children were the living representations of that undying love which was stronger than any feeling that can be experienced. To live with only the memory of one in their child would be unbearable for the one remaining. Alone, Yamato and Taichi were nothing. 

"I'm so glad nothing life threatening happened," Matt said. "But the car's probably going to have a ticket on it when we leave..." 

"Why?" 

"I left it parked halfway out of a handicapped space by the door, I was in a rush to get in here..." 

"Just go outside and park it somewhere else," Tai said. "I'll be all right for a minute." 

"I don't want to leave you alone," Matt protested. 

"Coach and Joe are here." 

"Oh, like that's any comfort," the blonde scoffed, rolling his eyes. 

"Daddy!" A little girl's voice cried from the entrace to the room. 

"Don't jump up on the bed, Tuesday!" Sora walked into the room after Tuesday, holding Shinji by the hand. Matt lifted his daughter up into his lap so she could give her other father a kiss, and Sora slid up a chair for herself, holding Shinji in her arms. 

"Kari's worried sick," Sora said. "She and TK are coming as soon as school lets out." 

"It's gonna be a party in here," Tai laughed. 

"Daddy, is your leg broke?" Tuesday asked worriedly. 

"It's not broken, but it's hurt really badly," he said to her. She looked down at his leg and around the hospital room. No one in the family had ever been seriously injured before, this was a new experience for her. The last time she had been in a hospital was the day her brother had been delivered, but she was far too young then to remember. 

"Oh, Matt, when we pulled in there was a cop outside putting a ticket on your car," Sora said. 

He moaned and stood up from the bed, placing Tuesday down next to Tai. 

"I guess I'd better go move it before they tow it away," he sighed. "I'll be right back," he said, mostly to Tai though, and kissed him lightly on the cheek before walking out. 

"Oh, looks like the two little cupcakes are here," came a voice from the door only seconds after Matt had walked out. Coach strolled in and Tuesday nearly leapt into her arms. All of her sarcasm, criticism and smug attitude vanished when it came to the Ishida children, it was like she was a completely different person towards them. 

"How about we get you some candy?" She said to Tuesday. The little girl agreed wholeheartedly and had slid down from the woman's embrace and was racing for the door in an instant. 

"Uh, Matt won't like that, they'll ruin their appetite for supper," Tai said. 

"He'll get over it," she said, winking and grabbing Shinji up out of Sora's lap, whispering promises of candy that would excite any young child. 

"She's very... sure of what she wants, isn't she?" Sora said when Coach and the two children had left the room. 

"Tell me about it, and she lets everyone _else_ know what she wants too," Tai said, shifting in the bed. "The whole way over here in the ambulance she told me to stop complaining and be a man." 

"I think she's extra mean to you because you're her favorite player," Sora said, smiling. "She likes teasing you." 

"Well she could at least save her teasing for a time when it doesn't feel like a thousand knives are stabbing into my leg." 

"What happened, anyway?" Sora asked. 

"The doctor guy that was in here before said my muscle was probably already strained, and when I put too much tension on it while I was running drills it just tore." He sighed, leaning back and placing his hands behind his head. "I haven't even been thinking about keeping in good shape lately, I've been too busy worrying about this whole thing with that Toshi lady. What if Kari loses her job just because of some dumb woman's prejudice?" 

"That won't happen, Tai," Sora assured him. "If that woman starts problems with the school board, we'll all be there to support you. Our kids will all being going to that school some day too, just like we did. I think we have a say in what goes on." 

"Yeah..." 

Matt reentered the room, crumbling a parking ticket up in his hand and grumbling. 

"Can't they give a guy a break during an emergency?" He growled, sitting back down next to Tai. "Hey, where are the kids?" 

"They went with Coach to get some candy," Tai said. 

"You let her buy them candy? They'll ruin their appetite!" 

"Told you," the brunette said to Sora. She nodded and laughed slightly, Matt and Tai could predict each other all too well. 

TK and Kari arrived to see their brother soon after. They were followed an hour later by Davis and Ken, who had apparently heard the news from their close friend Yolei, who had heard it while visiting Cody, who had heard it during a phone conversation with Izzy, who had heard it from the overly talkative Mimi, who had heard it from her husband Joe. Even though Joe had been there to witness everything first hand, by the time the information got to Davis, who naturally relayed it to Ken, the rumor was that Tai had been hit with a flying soccer ball, fallen in a ditch and broken his hip. 

Tai was helped into a wheelchair and moved out of the emergency room to another bed upstairs. While there, a surgeon showed up to explain to everyone present what had happened, and what the surgery on Tai's muscle would involve. It was scheduled for late the next day, and Tai was to stay in the hospital overnight. When visiting hours were over, everyone hesitantly went home, TK and Kari taking their niece and nephew with them. Matt had decided to stay with his husband throughout the night and all through his surgery the next day. 

Later that evening, just as the night shift was coming on, Matt snuck quietly into Tai's room and knelt down by the side of the bed. He watched his love sleep, the shine of the moon and city lights lit up his face as he slumbered. The musician brushed Tai's bangs from his brow and admired the peaceful beauty. The painkillers he had been given erased the hurting in his leg enough so that he could sleep soundly. 

"My poor angel," he whispered. His blue eyes, half closed, looked over every inch of his husband's face. It amazed him how Tai could remain so gorgeous, even after all he had been through that day. The shabby hospital gown and plain white sheets could not take away from the spell he cast on Matt's heart each time the blonde looked at him. 

"Yami...?" Tai said groggily, opening his eyes and yawning when he sensed a presence in the room. 

"Mmph... I didn't mean to wake you up," Matt apologized. "You need all the rest you can get." 

"I'm fine," he said, wiping the sleep from his eyes and turning his face to see Matt. "What time is it?" 

"A little after midnight," Matt answered, checking his watch. 

Tai smiled at his husband and held his hand gently. 

"Wouldn't it be great if we could lock the door and do it right here on the hospital bed?" He said, giggling and toying with Matt's hair. 

"I don't think that's such a good idea right now," Matt laughed. 

"This whole thing is really gonna mess up our sex life though," Tai sighed. 

Matt laid his head down on the pillow next to the brunette and rubbed soothingly up and down his arm. "Everything that surgeon said wasn't exactly something to look forward too, huh?" he said. "Long recovery time, lots of physical therapy..." 

"This sucks," Tai whined. "I'm getting horny just thinking about it." 

"Maybe we can spend our nights doing something else for the next few months," Matt said, trying to comfort him. 

"Like what, crossword puzzles?" 

"Dirty crossword puzzles," Matt said, grinning slyly and winking. 

"Yami! Now you're making me even more horny." 

Matt kissed the brunette's nose and draped one arm over his body. 

"We'll get through it somehow," he promised. "We've been through everything under the sun, things will turn out all right in the end." 

Tai smiled and nodded, knowing how true it was. "They always do." 


	8. Part Eight

**_::Note::_** The much awaited next chapter of Matt and Tai's marriage is FINALLY here! I know it's been a very, very long time since I updated this fic, I just haven't had the inspiration to do it. But, for all of you who have been waiting, here you go! It's still not done, but I promise that it will finally be completed some day soon! 

The next night, after sitting for hours in a small, quiet waiting room, a nurse finally arrived to inform Matt the surgery was over and he could see his husband again. He leaned on the edge of a bed in the recovery room, the curtains drawn around Tai's bed. The injured athlete was still groggy from the anesthesia and feeling sick to his stomach. 

"I'm gonna puke..." he moaned, shifting uncomfortably. He leg was wrapped up to hide the stitches; he was dressed in only his underwear and a hospital gown, and there was some sort of solution dripping into his arm from an IV hanging overhead. Matt ran his fingers through Tai's bangs and looked down at him, ready to hold a container under his mouth if he needed to throw up. 

"Do you want me to go get the nurse?" he asked. 

"No, I'll be fine," Tai said. 

He closed his brown eyes for a moment, taking deep breaths to calm his stomach. Matt surveyed the scene before him once again. Along with the IV, Tai had a clip on the tip of his index finger that was hooked up to a machine beside them. The screen showed his heart rate, blood pressure, and a few other statistics, but Matt was not quite sure what they meant. He had been given morphine to take away his pain, but the effects of all the medication on his system were what caused the most discomfort. Tai rarely got sick, and his body was having trouble handling all the foreign substances. 

"Are you going to be ok now?" Matt asked, setting the container he had been holding back on the floor. 

"Yeah..." Tai took another deep breath and sat up a bit. "I just wanna go home." 

"One more night, angel," Matt soothed, rubbing the brunette's stomach gently. 

"Are my cats ok?" he asked. 

"Sora stopped by to feed them this afternoon, they'll be fine," Matt said. 

"I worry about them more these days since they're getting older." 

Matt smiled and shook his head, wondering how Tai could still be concerned with his pets after all he'd been through in the last twenty-four hours. 

"Those two are the healthiest and most pampered felines in all of Japan, Tai," he laughed. 

Just then they saw a head of blue hair peek through the door, and Joe's face came into view, his glasses falling down off his nose. He looked rather nervous about something... of course Joe very frequently looked nervous. This time, though, his face was extremely grim, as if he was about to announce someone's death. 

"Joe, are you just going to stand outside the door all night?" Matt asked, leaning back in the chair a bit to get a better look at his friend. Joe fumbled with the lower corners of his white lab coat and fidgeted in the doorway before walking in. He pulled up a stool next to the hospital bed and sighed deeply, looking down at Tai. Tai raised a thick, brown eyebrow and stared up at Joe. 

"Are you ok there...?" he asked, trying to sit up a bit in bed with Matt protesting and keeping him lying down. 

"Um, yeah, well," Joe sighed again. "This is going to be really hard to say, but I have to do it. I feel like you should hear it from a friend." 

"Hear what; is everything ok?" the overprotective Matt demanded. 

"Ok, I hate to say this, but everything is not ok. I was just talking to one of the doctor's that assisted with your surgery." 

"And?" Tai asked. "I thought everything went fine, that's what they told Matt." 

"Apparently you failed to mention you were a soccer player though," Joe said. 

"What are you talking about, that's how I got hurt in the first place. Didn't they know?" 

"Tai, you realize that as far as muscle injuries go, yours is pretty severe, right?" Joe said, rolling his stool a few inches back from the bed when he caught a glimpse of Matt's face. His icy blue stare told him that he was liable to get a punch in the face if he didn't get to the point quickly. Matt wasn't the type to sit through long explanations when the news concerned his husband. 

"They told me it was a grade three tear or whatever," Tai said. "But the operation was supposed to fix everything." He waited for a response but Joe just kept the same grim expression on his face. "Wasn't it...?" Tai asked. 

"By severe I mean really severe. As in... career ending severe...." he said softly, looking down and scuffing his shoe against the floor. 

Tai's eyes widened and he shot up in bed before Matt could stop him. "Career ending!? Are you trying to say I can't play soccer anymore!?" he shouted. If he had not been hooked up to IVs and monitors he just might have grabbed Joe by the collar at that point. 

Joe held his hands up in front of him in defense, looking panicked. "You'll have to wait until the surgeon gets back to you!" he said. "But from what I've heard I don't think there's any way you'll be able to run like you used to." Tai stared at him, totally dumbfounded. He swallowed with difficulty, feeling tears start to well up in his eyes. "You can still play soccer just... probably not professionally," Joe finished. 

Tai leaned back against the mattress and looked down into his lap. His eyes overflowed, and small droplets rolled down his cheeks as he sat there. Matt reached up to lightly brush a teardrop away, but he had no idea what to say to comfort his partner. After his family, soccer was Tai's entire world. There was nothing he loved more than to be racing down the field, dribbling the ball to score that last minute, game winning goal. All the sweat, adrenaline, thrill of winning, pain of losing, all of that together was one of the truest joys he could imagine. It was everything to him, and now it was being snatched away. 

"This is unreal..." he sobbed. Matt wrapped his arms around his husband and held him to his chest, petting his hair lightly and rocking him. 

"Joe, are you sure about this?" Matt said. 

"They're probably going to be in here to discuss it with you any time now. Your injury will heal eventually, but it would be dangerous to play soccer again. The damage might be permanent next time; you wouldn't be able to run at all." 

"Yami..." Tai whined, clutching at the blonde's sweater tightly. He squeezed his eyes shut, making more tears leak out. Joe bit his lip uncomfortably. Never, in all the time he had known him, had he seen Tai reduced to such a state. He had never even seen their brave leader shed a tear. 

"I think I'd better go now," he said. He got up and pushed the stool back where he had found it, then exited the room quickly. The pair was left alone again, Tai completely in shock and Matt not knowing what to do. The brunette was such a happy person who truly loved life and rarely let anything bring him down. Now, though, he was faced with something he cherished being gone forever, and Matt had no words to comfort him. All he could do was hold him close, assuring Tai of his promise to always be there for him. They had made the vow to stay together for better or for worse, after all. Now was the worst.... 

"I heard the other day at school that Mrs. Toshi is trying to get a petition signed to have Tuesday and Shinji taken away from you. I never thought she would go this far..." Kari sighed. She was sitting in the Ishida's living room that afternoon, a week after Tai had returned from the hospital. The situation with the anti-homosexual school board did not seem to be getting any better. She had come to visit to give the couple an update and also to see her ailing brother, who also did not seem to be getting any better. Things were progressing as they should be physically, but emotionally Tai was the lowest anyone had ever seen him. 

"I can't believe this!" Matt growled, blowing his blonde bangs from his eyes. "I can't belive this bitch is trying to get our kids taken from us. Can she even do that!? I mean, is that legal?" 

"I don't know," Kari said. "You'd have to ask Cody about all the legal aspects." 

"Don't worry. I will..." he grumbled, staring angrily out the terrace window at the city. 

"How is Tai doing?" Kari asked with worry. The past few times she had seen him, he did not even want to talk for more than a few minutes. 

Matt sighed deeply and glanced over at the bedroom door. The children were sitting on the bed with their father, not really understanding why he had been so sad, but trying to comfort him anyway. 

"He's depressed. I've never seen him so down. I don't know what to do." Matt ran his fingers through his hair repeatedly, something he always did when he was upset or thinking deeply. "He doesn't want to talk about soccer at all." 

"I never imagined Tai not wanting to talk about soccer..." 

Matt sighed once again and continued staring at the door. Inside the bedroom, Shinji was at the foot of the bed creating a new masterpiece in one of his coloring books. Tuesday was laying on the bed next to Tai, her little hands playing with his fluffy hair. 

"Daddy Matt said you can't play soccer anymore," she said. 

"Yeah..." he sighed. He knew she just wanted to be with him and give comfort the best she could, but he just wanted to be alone. Nothing could make him feel better at this point. He could not tell his daughter to go away though; being rejected like that by her own father would hurt her terribly, and he could not bring himself to do that. 

"Why not?" she asked, still twirling his hair around her fingers. 

"Because my leg is hurt..." 

"Is that why you were crying?" 

Tai blinked and looked at her. She must have still been awake when he broke down again and cried into Matt's shirt for almost an hour the night before. One of the last things he wanted was to look weak in front of his children, and he felt embarrassed that she had heard him sounding so pathetic. "Yeah, that's why." 

"I thought grown ups didn't cry," she said. 

He pulled her into his lap, careful of his still aching leg and held her. "Everybody cries, even grown ups," he told her. "Sometimes it takes a lot to make grown people cry though..." 

"So you're really sad a whole lot?" 

"Yeah, a whole lot." 

"Daddy Matt always sings to me when I'm sad. Does he sing to you?" she asked. 

"Sometimes..." 

"Ok. I'm gonna sing you a song," she said, getting out of his lap and standing up on the big bed. She danced around in a circle on the bed while she sang, "Ooki na kuri no ki no shita de, anata to watashi, naka yoku asobimashou, ooki na kuri no ki no shita de." Then she plopped back down on the bed next to her father and grinned at him. "We sang that song at school," she said. 

Tai brought her into his arms again just as Shinji climbed up onto the mattress and made his way across the bed with a paper in his hand and a crayon hanging out of his mouth. "Shinji, don't eat that." 

"I not!" he said, giggling and crawling into Tai's lap, nearly pushing his sister off the bed. "Daddy dis is you and your leg's broke," he said, showing him a lovely portrait of Tai drawn in crayon with what appeared to be a giant concrete block for a leg, but Tai assumed it was a bandage. 

"That's great, Shinji. I'll ask Daddy Matt to hang it up on the refrigerator for me, okay?" 

Shinji got up and started hopping around the bed chanting, "Fidge-a-lator, fidge-a-lator, fidge-a-lator!" 

"No, Shinji, it's fidge-UURR-ator," Tuesday corrected him, causing Tai to smile for the first time all week. He gathered up his children into his arms and kissed their heads. 

"Thanks, you two." 

"You're welcome, Daddy," Tuesday said, although she was not quite sure what they had done. Either way, she could tell that her father was happy by the sparkling in his brown eyes and the famous grin he was flashing at the two of them. 

That night when the children were tucked into bed and the house was quiet, Matt sat behind Tai in bed, brushing his thick mass of fluffy hair. It hadn't been tended to in days and was a complete rat's nest, to put it mildly. Matt was taking extra care not to pull too hard at the monstrous tangles that had formed there, and so far had avoided causing Tai any pain. 

"I am so tempted to just cut this all off..." Matt mumbled. 

"You wouldn't!" 

"You're right, I wouldn't. But, you really need to remember to brush your hair once in a while," he said, spraying some of the detangler he normally used on Tuesday in his husband's hair. 

"Why bother when I can have you do it for me...?" Tai replied, almost giggling. This was an extremely pleasant surprise for Matt. Tai had been nothing but glum and quiet since he had returned from the hospital. Deciding to let the horribly knotted hair stay as it was for a bit longer, Matt wrapped his arms around the brunette and pulled him closer against his body. Tai glanced up behind him and smiled contentedly. 

"What brought on this sudden change of mood?" Matt asked, running his long fingers up and down Tai's bare chest. He was wearing one of the blonde's pajama shirts with every button undone. The sleeves were a bit too long and only his fingers were sticking out from the cuffs. 

"Talking to the kids for a little while cheered me up... and I've been thinking." 

"You thought? Taichi, congratulations!" Matt teased. 

"Yamiii..." Tai grinned up and him and shoved him playfully before settling back into his narrow lap. 

"Ok, in all seriousness now," Matt said, holding his husband closely to his body. "What have you been thinking about?" 

"I'm thinking about going back to school, but I wanted to talk it over with you." 

"Going back to college?" 

"Yeah, I only need a few more courses and I can get my veterinary degree." He snuggled against Matt while he talked, feeling the bass player's roughened fingertips stroking the back of his ear. "I gave up on being a vet when I got accepted into the pros, but now I'm suddenly glad I've got something to fall back on." 

"I'll support anything you want to do," Matt said, happy that after a week with no luck in cheering the normally happy Taichi up, an afternoon alone with his children had done the trick. "Especially if you want to sell your cats." 

"Matt!" Tai sat up quickly and turned, still amazingly flexible despite his injured leg (much to Matt's delight...), and smacked the blonde across the face with one of the pillows. "Stop hating my cats!" 

"Well they hate me too, it's a mutual hatred." 

"Only because you're mean to them!" Tai said, bashing him over the head with the pillow again. 

"Quit it! You're going to mess up my hair," Matt laughed, shoving the pillow away from him. 

"Don't want your precious hair messed up, huh?" Tai said with an evil grin, eyeing Matt's perfectly groomed locks. 

"Don't you dare..." he said, narrowing his eyes at the little brunette leaning in towards him. 

"Oooh, it's like a magnet, my hands are just getting pulled in!" Tai said, clutching on to the ends of Matt's hair. 

"Stop!" But it was too late, Matt's flawless hairdo had been destroyed and was sticking up in every imaginable direction. "Well, you're back to normal..." he groaned. 

After long weeks of agonizing physical therapy and much complaining, Tai was finally back on his feet, or attempting to be at least. He still couldn't walk for more than a few minutes without having to sit down and rest. He also _refused_ to use the crutch the doctor had given him, saying it looked stupid. Because of his temporary handicap, he and Matt had switched places when they took the children to the park. While Matt was normally the one sitting on a bench keeping a watchful eye, Tai was now forced to sit and be left out. As he watched Tuesday and Shinji enjoy themselves on the playground and drive Matt crazy expecting him to keep up, he sighed and longed to get up and play. Though it may seem strange for a thirty year old man, Taichi loved to play! In fact, he and Davis were the only ones who never tired of playing with the children, they still had not outgrown their love of games though their childhood days were far behind them. It sometimes annoyed their spouses when the two were acting considerably immature, (though Ken would never say so and they both loved them just the same) it was an absolute delight for Tuesday and Shinji that their daddy was just like a big kid. 

"Daddy, come push me!" Tuesday yelled, still too little to propel herself on the swings. Her legs were futilely pumping back and forth. 

"Just a second, Tuesday!" Matt said, who was impatiently waiting at the bottom of the slide for Shinji to come down. The little goggled-headed boy was hesitantly standing at the top, still trying to judge what was the _exact_ right way to go down. 

"Please, daddy I wanna be pushed now!" Tuesday whined, she had not been making any progress in swinging for the last five minutes. "Please, please, please, please, please!" 

"Shinji just go down the slide," Matt said, sighing deeply from the bottom. 

"Daddy I wanna be a sno-order, peas?" 

"A what...?" 

"He wants you to pretend he's going down on a snow board, Matt," Tai translated from the bench. 

"Okay, go ahead and snow board then, Shinji. Just, please be quick about it. Your sister is about to burst a blood vessel over there." He eyed his daughter who was about having a fit trying to make her swing move. 

"You haf to 'nounce it!" Shinji demanded, getting ready to go down. 

"What? Shinji just go!" Matt shouted, growing very tired of waiting. 

"Matt is so boring..." Tai mumbled before standing up and putting his hands in front of his mouth like a megaphone. "Boarding next is the spectacularly awesome world champion snow boarder, Shinji Ishida! AND THE CROWD IS GOING WILD!" 

Shinji giggled from the top of the slide and finally slid down into Matt's outstretched arms. Of course anyone with a brain would have known a world champion snow boarder couldn't make his death defying trip down a mountain without an announcer.... Matt, apparently, had no brain when it came to playing pretend. 

Matt set Shinji down on the baby swing and buckled him in before pushing Tuesday. She smiled broadly for the first few moments of being pushed but then frowned and turned around to look at him. 

"Daddy, say something funny," she said. 

"Tuesday, I thought you just wanted to be pushed." 

"You're a boring pusher..." she whined, and skidded her feet along the ground to bring the swing to a stop. She hopped off and ran quickly through the grass to go play on the monkey bars, leaving Matt wondering what the heck he had done wrong this time. 

"What do these kids want from me?" he groaned, hitting his head against the metal bar of the swing set. 

"Daddy why you hit your head?" Shinji asked from the motionless baby swing. 

"Because apparently I suck," Matt said. 

"Oh." 

"You're not playing with them, Yami. You're just... doing stuff." Tai told him, keeping one eye on Tuesday on the other side of the playground. 

"Well I thought I was playing! I don't know what they want me to do." He sighed again and began pushing Shinji on the baby swing. 

"Try to act like you're having fun," Tai advised, and would have continued if it had not been for the ear splitting scream coming from the monkey bars. In the split second he had taken his eyes off her, Tuesday had managed to fall. Ignoring the pain in his leg, he joined Matt in running over to their injured daughter. 

"Tuesday, what happened, are you okay?" Matt asked frantically to the sobbing little girl. 

"I hurt my leg!" she wailed, tears streaming down her face has she uncovered the hands she hand clasped over her knee to show them. 

"You're okay sweetie, there's nothing there," Matt said when he had examined her leg. 

"No! Look harder!" she said, still sobbing and hiccuping. Both men leaned over and spotted the tiniest scratch possible on her knee. 

"Tuesday..." Matt sighed and rolled his eyes while Tai leaned down and kisses her knee. 

"All better?" he asked. 

She nodded and threw her arms around the brunette's shoulders, rubbing her face against his shoulder and drying her eyes on his shirt. Matt sat down in the sand under the monkey bars and shook his head fondly. 

"Daddy Tai when is your leg gonna be better?" Tuesday asked, playing with a tuft of his hair. 

"Soon, don't worry. I'll be running around before you know it." 

She kneeled up a bit and whispered in his ear, "Daddy Matt's not a fun player..." 

"Shhh, he'll learn." 

Just then they were disturbed by another shriek and looked up to see they had left Shinji stranded in the baby swing across the playground. 

"Oops..." Matt said, getting up to retrieve him. "Well, at least he can't run away from there." 

That evening, the Ishida couple lied in bed together after settling the kids down for the night. Matt was lying on his side with a book propped up in front of him, reading who knows what as he usually did before he slept. Tai was busy staring at the ceiling since Matt was too enthralled in his book to talk to him. The next day, we would be visiting the collage he had been to years before to discuss continuing his animal sciences classes. If all went well, in a few years he would be a veterinarian and could open his own animal hospital. He had always adored cats especially, and would have gone on with his studies if he had not been accepted into the professional soccer leagues. 

Matt scoffed lightly at something in his book and Tai rolled to his side, looking at the back of his husband's head and reaching out to strokes his blonde hair lightly. 

"What?" Matt asked, not even rolling over. 

"Nothing, just playing with your hair." 

The silence in their apartment was shattered suddenly by an ear splitting scream from the children's bedroom. Both men were out of bed in and instant and down the hallway to check on them. Tai kneeled down by Tuesday's bed when he saw she was sitting up and crying and Matt leaned over the crib to see if Shinji was all right. The little boy was somehow still sound asleep. 

"Must have inherited the sound sleeping from Tai," Matt mused, raising one eyebrow when he had concluded his son was fine. 

"Tuesday, what's wrong?" Tai asked, pulling the sobbing little girl into his lap and rocking her back and forth gently. She hiccupped and wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her pajamas while she clung to him tightly. Shaken out of sleep by a nightmare, she could barely even stop crying long enough to speak yet. 

"Did you have a bad dream?" Matt asked, sitting lightly on the edge of her bed and ruffling her hair. 

She nodded and moved over into his lap, trading fathers so she could be near both of them for a little while. Tai inched closer and wrapped his arms around both Matt and their daughter; and the three of them sat on the small bed together quietly while Tuesday calmed down. 

"Tell us what happened," Matt said as he rubbed her back gently to ease her sobs and help the tears to stop flowing. 

"I had a bad dream.... Somebody was taking me away from you," she sniffled. Tai and Matt looked at each other with worry for a moment. Could she know more about the situation with the school board and Mrs. Toshi than they thought? Perhaps it was only a coincidence, or maybe her subconscious was telling her something was wrong, even though her fathers had not discussed it with her directly. 

"Tuesday, it was just a dream," Matt soothed. "Nobody is ever, ever going to take you away from us." 

"Promise?" 

"We promise," Tai said. "You're our little girl forever. You're safe here, okay?" 

Tuesday nodded and clung fiercely to both of them. She did not want them to leave her alone tonight. 

"Can I come sleep in your bed?" she asked. They both nodded and Matt picked her up from her bed to bring her into their bedroom. Tai turned on the baby monitor, since Shinji would be alone in his crib. When they had turned the lights off again and cuddled into Matt and Tai's cozy king size bed, Tuesday fell back to sleep right away. 

"Do you think she knows what's going on?" Tai whispered once she had dozed off. 

"I don't know.... I haven't really said anything to the kids because I didn't want to scare them, have you?" Matt asked. 

"No, maybe she just figured it out on her own. I think she knows a lot more than we give her credit for." 

"She's definitely got a lot going on under those little pigtails. We should talk the whole thing over with her tomorrow, she deserves to know." 

Tai nodded and yawned. He snuggled into his pillow and held hands with Matt, their arms draped over Tuesday to meet in the middle. After quick kisses goodnight and a bit of tossing and turning, both men fell asleep and all was quiet in the Ishida home once again. 

_The translation to Tuesday's song in English:_

Under the big chestnut tree, you and me, are playing happily, under the big chestnut tree. 

A Japanese children's rhyme I found on the Internet 


End file.
